Al-Ray is the name of the new Hamas-led Gaza Government Satellite channel to be on air within months in addition to other media outlets whether run by the government or the movement.
The Gaza government and Hamas own a number of media outlets, mostly established after Hamas’ victory in the 2006 elections. They include daily and semi-weekly newspapers, a number of local FM radio stations, a monthly newspaper that deals with social issues, a variety of local news agencies and websites, a media production company and the Al-Aqsa satellite television channel, as well as a few television channels and news sites abroad.
The head of the government media office, Ihab al-Ghussein, announced Feb. 16 that a Council of Ministers resolution is being implemented to establish a television channel that will reflect government policies on various Palestinian issues.
“The satellite channel will convey a media message best serving the Palestinian cause and national agenda,” Ghussein said in an interview with Hamas-affiliated newspaper Felesteen.
The Hamas Government in Gaza is facing since ouster of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi financial crisis due to the new Egyptian policy of closing down the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt which Hamas used to tax the goods that come through.
The Al Ray satellite channel is expected to begin pilot broadcasts this year. Its general manager, Ismail al-Thawabteh, tried to downplay the impact of Gaza’s financial crisis on the launch and refused to divulge the estimated costs of establishing the channel.
“We are endeavoring to exploit the human potential and financial resources available to finalize the ongoing preparations for the launch of the channel, while making every effort to minimize expenses. The current staff is comprised of approximately 30 employees, some of whom come from various government ministries and possess the required qualifications. We are also collaborating with local media production companies to produce programs at a lower cost, or sometimes free of charge,” he said
The movement felt that it lacked the proper venue on other Palestinian, Arab and foreign media outlets to express its views, because those outlets are biased toward either the Palestinian Authority (PA) or Israel and limit their coverage to exposing the movement’s negative aspects, without any mention of its positive ones.
Hamas gives great importance to the media, and has tried on more than one occasion to pressure media outlets into adopting its point of view or political line, by questioning journalists or close down their offices in Gaza strip.
The division with Fatah also compelled Hamas to try to control the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in Gaza, where Fatah controlled the majority of board members. Hamas formed its own Journalists Syndicate board of directors in Gaza, composed of journalists affiliated with the movement and Islamic Jihad. But the experiment quickly proved to be a failure when the board announced its resignation several months later.
Gaza government spokeswoman Israa al-Mudallal explained that the new channel would mainly target non-domestic audiences to acquaint them with the problems that the Palestinian community suffers from.
“The channel’s discourse will be different from the one adopted by other Hamas-affiliated media outlets. It will express the point of view of the government and will not be similar to that of the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa satellite channel. We will try to focus attention on the human aspect and the suffering of people, as well as the positive qualities of Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip,” she said.
Hamas-affiliated media outlets adopted political stances in support of the movement’s pro-Muslim Brotherhood policies in Egypt, Tunisia and Qatar. They also gave an open forum to Hamas’ positions on various Arab issues.
Journalist Fathi Sabbah, chairman of the board of the Palestinian Institute for Communication and Development, found the justifications given for the establishment of a government satellite channel to be lacking in light of the government’s financial crisis and the presence of a sufficient number of media outlets addressing both the domestic and Arab audiences.
“Hamas and its government’s belief that the media can convince people, locally and abroad, of the movement’s vision and orientation may be erroneous. Adding another media outlet to the already existing ones will serve absolutely no purpose. All of Hamas’ branches and all of its government departments use email, text messages and other means of communication to send the media press releases and statements covering their positions on the various issues, without the need for any journalist to ask them any questions. What, then, is the use of establishing a new television channel?” He said
On a related note, the Gaza government still bars the distribution of West Bank newspapers in Gaza, in retaliation for the PA’s ban on the distribution of Hamas-affiliated newspapers in the West Bank. Hamas continues to forbid Fatah-affiliated media offices from conducting business in Gaza, but has allowed some of their reporters to file from Gaza, in return for the Ramallah government allowing Al-Aqsa TV and Al-Quds reporters to work there.
The hopes among Palestinian journalists that the reconciliation between Fateh and Hamas would lead to less tension on the media that affiliated to parties especially the ones belong to Hamas in Gaza and to Fateh in the West Bank, and the return of distribution of ban papers in Gaza.
The new Channel seems to be the new outlet will focus on the audience of arab world more than local and address the issues that Hamas want other to know about it, which gives a signal how Hamas believes media would help it to make a breakthrough in the Arabic policy in the region. The question of success is still unclear.
