PMC'S MEDIA FREEDOM DAY EVENT - AMIRA HASS: REPORTING FROM THE PALESTINIAN PERSPECTIVE
Amira Hass is an award-winning Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz. She is particularly well-known for her independent reporting on Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has also lived for a number of years.
The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Hass was born in Jerusalem and was educated at the Hebrew University. Frustrated by the events of the First Intifada and by what she considered their inadequate coverage by the Israeli media, she started to report from the Palestinian territories in 1991. She is said to be the only Jewish Israeli journalist who has lived full-time among the Palestinians, in Gaza from 1993 and in Ramallah from 1997. She has said: "Just as reporting about England should be from London and about France from Paris, so reporting about Palestine should be from Palestine."
Her reporting is generally sympathetic to the Palestinian point of view and critical of Israeli government policy towards the Palestinians. During the years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, however, Hass published several highly critical articles about the chaos and disorder caused by militias associated with the Fatah party of Yasser Arafat and the bloody war between Palestinian factions in Nablus.
Her reportage of events, and her voicing of opinions that run counter to both official Israeli and Palestinian positions, has exposed Hass to verbal attacks from both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities.
Hass was the recipient of the World Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute in 2000. In 2001, she received the Golden Dove of Peace Prize awarded by the Rome-based organisation Archivo Disarmo.
In December 2009, Hass was awarded the Reporters Without Borders Prize for Press Freedom for her "independent and outspoken reporting from the Gaza Strip" for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz during Operation Cast Lead.
When: May 6, 4,30-5.30pm
Where: WG404, Case Study Room in the Sir Paul Reeves Building communications precinct.
AUT University
Podcast at AUT ON DEMAND: http://ondemand.aut.ac.nz/Mediasite/Play/c8cd622e142840989248baa0edfacb691d
Speakers:
Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie
Janfrie Wakim of the Palestine Solidarity Network
Journalist Amira Hass of Haaretz
PMC contact details and map
Organised by the Palestine Solidarity Network (PSN) and hosted by the Pacific Media Centre (PMC).
Contacts: Janfrie Wakim and the PMC