PCR calls for Int volunteers with media skills

PCR calls for International volunteers with media skills

A project to establish a media center that combines the efforts and skils of both Palestinian reporters and International reporters or volunteers with media skills is running.

We are calling for international volunteers with media skills to come and join the effort. skills needed are mostly (right now) in english editing and to act as international media correspondents.

Other skills in all media fields will be required very soon.

So far the team has put together a news website. you can access it through http://www.imemc.org

Even while still under construction and can have few typos it can provide a fair daily coverage of events in Palestine with some articles and analyisis.

People interested please write to mailto:pcr@p-ol.com

Ghassan Andoni

IMEMC Mission Statement In an attempt to balance the scales of representation and to bring the public a clearer picture of the realities in the region, a group of international and Palestinian journalists have joined together to create a new media center that will function as a cross roads of information for both the public and for professional journalists. The International Middle East Media Center has started a basic article print service and news wire on the internet, offering articles from 45 journalists stationed throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and commentary from editors and political analysts well versed in the history of the region.

The International Middle East Media Center's main objective is to provide both the public, and professional international journalists, with accurate, well investigated information regarding the current crisis in Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 1967 boarders). After an extensive analysis of the methods of media operation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, our team determined that news coming from international and local agencies was lacking on multiple levels, from source interviews to actual research and publication. The dramatic importance this region plays in international affairs makes accurate information about the region an absolute necessity. People in the international community need this information in order to generate realistic opinions regarding necessary courses of action toward peaceful settlement of the conflict.

To further accomplish its goal, IMEMC seeks to provide a service to international journalists as a clearinghouse of information, both by way of daily articles, and by way of establishing relationships with journalists working in the region, and with international bureaus working outside the region. In our beginning stages, our news production will be limited to print sources. As we expand, however, IMEMC seeks to generate news services for international audiences and journalists in the field of TV and radio broadcast as well. Over time IMEMC will initiate a "stringer" service, providing TV and radio stations with short interviews and small clips of video and audio from local events where international media may not have been present.

Generally speaking, IMEMC seeks to focus not only on the day to day problems presented by military action, but on the general effects of occupation. Issues such as the treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, Chronic Traumatic Stress Syndrome caused by generalized military action in civilian areas, water rights and water quality, and ecological disasters caused by lack of resources and waste facilities play a large role in every day life for most Palestinians and underscore the problems inherent in the current peace process, yet these issues are terribly under-represented in international media. Bringing these issues to light and putting them before international public opinion will help facilitate more equitable decisions regarding international diplomacy and action within the region.

The larger goal of the Middle East Media Center project is to always produce fair and accurate reporting. The nature of this project is to attempt to balance scales of reporting internationally by effectively reporting on Palestinian issues that are largely neglected by the international media. Maintaining balance in a macro perspective can only be attained by radically shifting the focus of international media, and, as regards the Middle East, this can only be done with consistent focus on Palestinian issues.

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