Will Palestinians Have Freedom of the Press?   

Last December, for the first time in nine years, Yosef Ahmad traveled outside the Gaza strip. Raised in one of the refugee camps that dot the territory then occupied by Israel, the 28-year-old aspiring television news producer was headed to Holland with several other journalists to receive a month of intensive training from the BBC.

With Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and Jericho about to replace the Israeli military occupation, many residents were anxious to establish their own media. Soon after the peace agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization last fall, the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) was founded to oversee the creation of a government-controlled TV and radio network.

Many Palestinian journalists suspect a free press is not in Yasir Arafat's plans. Most likely, they say, he will follow the lead of other Arab leaders and tightly control the media.

Press freedom is not mentioned in the draft constitution, although PLO officials seem to grasp the concept. After being criticized for asking journalists covering Arafat's symbolic arrival in Gaza to pay for the privilege, the head of the PLO's press operations acknowledged it "may have infringed on the freedom of the press" and nixed the idea.

Arafat, however, apparently has no intention to delegate media control to anyone but his supporters. After Yosef Ahmad returned home early this year, he learned he was not among those who would be groomed for the PBC's television operation. Instead, most if not all of the candidates are members of Fatah, Arafat's PLO faction, and the PBC itself will be headed by Radwan Abu Ayyash, a Fatah loyalist.

"They want people who will adopt their policies," says Ahmad, "and I won't do that."

Sam'an Khoury, the PBC's deputy director, suggests that his own loyalty to the Palestinian Democratic Party, an "opposition" group that has supported Arafat on most matters, demonstrates that non-Fatahs are not being shut out. He says the corporation will be run by a 71-member board of trustees and 11-member board of directors representing the community.

Nevertheless, if the Palestinian media that already exist in the territories are any indication, keeping the PBC from becoming an Arafat mouthpiece may be difficult. Palestinian media based in Arab East Jerusalem have traditionally been subsidized by the PLO or Jordan.

The largest Palestinian newspaper is al-Quds ("Jerusalem"), a 24-page daily with a circulation that on some days reaches 50,000. Founded in 1951, al-Quds is considered independent and a supporter of the peace process. A smaller daily, al-Nahar ("The Day"), covers politics more closely in Jordan and gives more space to Islamic fundamentalists who oppose the peace agreement. The Jerusalem Times, an English-language weekly, was launched in February; its publisher and editor are both veterans of al-Fajar, a Fatah-backed newspaper that shut down in 1993 when the PLO ran out of money.

Palestinian journalists say it is likely that Arafat will start at least one newspaper in Jericho with exclusive notices about government contracts and jobs, guaranteeing readership. But some add that unless that paper is allowed to have unfettered competition, there could be problems.

"There will be a democratic authority, because we will insist upon it," says Ali al-Khalali, editor of the Jerusalem Times. "If they [the PLO] are not like that, they'll lose."

The best guarantee for the relative freedom of the Palestinian media for the immediate future may be the status of East Jerusalem, where much of it is based. The area remains under Israeli control, but that could change during negotiations now underway. Meanwhile, Yosef Ahmad has decided the best TV news jobs lie abroad, but like many younger journalists in Gaza and Jericho, he has neither the money to make the move nor the desire to leave his family--and homeland--behind.