The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate announced during a May 23 meeting in Ramallah that the predominant concern of Palestinian journalists is loyalty to “martyrs,” i.e. terrorists, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported on June 5.
Palestinian journalist Muhammad al-Baz made the statement on the official P.A. TV news: “Today we [the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate General Congress] are sending a message that the top priority of the Palestinian journalist is loyalty to all the martyrs, loyalty to our people’s just cause.”
PMW, a media watchdog group, said the declaration of loyalty to terrorism echoed a statement to Palestinian journalists by P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas’s representative and general supervisor of the official media, Ahmad Assaf, who on Jan. 30 told journalists that countering Zionism is their chief goal.
“In the eyes of his honor the president, you are the homeland’s soldiers defending the Palestinian national narrative against the Zionist narrative,” Assaf told the press.
Similarly, statements by a host on P.A. TV on Jan. 6 confirmed that P.A. journalists place their “national obligations” before their professional ones.
When Alaa Sharbati, son of terrorist prisoner Ayman Sharbati, thanked a news host for having him on, the host replied, “No, this is our duty.”
“You are the homeland’s TV channel of which we are proud,” Alaa Sharbati said.
“Our national duty comes before [our] professional [duty],” said the host of P.A. TV’s “Good Morning Jerusalem” program.