Ma'an News Agency
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| Type | Broadcast radio, television and online |
|---|---|
| Country | Palestinian territories |
| Availability | National International |
| Launch date | 2005 |
| Official website | http://www.maannews.net/ |
Ma'an News Agency (MNA) (Arabic: وكالة معا الإخبارية) is a large wire service created in 2005[1] in the Palestinian Territories. It is part of the Ma'an Network, a non-governmental organisation media network created in 2002[2] in the Palestinian Territories among independent journalists throughout the West Bank and Gaza and including nine local television stations and nine local radio stations. Ma'an News Agency publishes news 24 hours a day in Arabic, Hebrew and English, and claims to be one of the largest wire services in the Palestinian Territories, with over three million visits per month.[1] Ma'an News Agency also publishes feature stories, analysis and opinion articles. The agency's headquarters are in Bethlehem and it maintains an office in Gaza City.
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[edit] History
The Ma'an Network began in 2002 as a partnership between Bethlehem TV and Search for Common Ground, a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, to create and distribute media programming. The name Ma'an is the Arabic word for "together". The group is run by Raed Othman, the former manager of Bethlehem TV. Search for Common Ground, provided $3 million in initial funding to Ma'an and continues to fund the organization and administer grants from other foreign sources. Ma'an has produced three soap operas (one of which, Mazih fi Jad (Joking seriously), was described as the first television drama series produced in the Palestinian territories), numerous news and public affairs programs and the television film Kafah. Ma'an's programs are broadcast by ten independent terrestrial television stations in the West Bank and occasionally by the Fatah-run Palestine TV satellite broadcaster.[3][4]
The Ma'an News Agency was launched in 2005 with funding from the Danish and Dutch Representative Offices to the Palestinian National Authority.[1] The news agency is the most visible component of the Ma'an Network.[4]
[edit] Independence
On its English-language website, Ma'an News Agency states that it: "scrupulously maintains its editorial independence and aims to promote access to information, freedom of expression, press freedom, and media pluralism in Palestine."[1] The Ma'an Network was founded with the goal of creating a media source that was free of factional control, unlike the major existing broadcasters such as Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV and Fatah's Palestine TV. In an interview with media scholar Matt Sienkiewicz, former Ma'an Chief Financial Officer Wisam Kutom stated that he told potential Ma'an funders that: "Palestinian television is factional television right now we [Palestinians] cannot tell the stories we want to, only the stories the factions will let us. There is no independent television".[4]
Funding for the Ma'an Network as a whole includes advertising revenue from its television and radio stations,[2] but comes primarily from foreign donors.[3][4]
In July 2007, MNA alleged that MNA's chief editor had received "direct threats" to carry out a "defamation campaign" against MNA by Hamas, at the time the de facto Gaza Strip government, unless MNA ceased to criticise "the Hamas movement".[5]
[edit] Popularity
Ma'an News Agency describes itself as currently being the leading source of independent news from the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and Israel, and "the first choice for online information" about Palestine.[1] According to a recent study, approximately 95.6 percent of Palestinians with internet access "frequently visit" the site.[6] Only high-profile sites Google, Yahoo, MSN, Windows Live, YouTube and Facebook receive more Palestinian visitors.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e "Ma'an News Agency". Ma'an News Agency. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-12-29. http://www.webcitation.org/5dRXNxE0v. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
- ^ a b "Welcome to Ma'an Network". Ma'an Network. 2005. Archived from the original on 2008-12-29. http://www.webcitation.org/5dRXbYjjl. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
- ^ a b Sienkiewicz, Matt (2010). "Hard Questions: Public Goods and the Political Economy of the New Palestinian Televisual Public Sphere.". The Velvet Light Trap (University of Texas Press) Fall (66): 3–14. doi:10.1353/vlt.2010.0004.
- ^ a b c d Sienkiewicz, Matt (2010). "Kafah and the Non-Profit Globalization of Palestinian Media". Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication (BRILL) 3 (3): 352–374. doi:10.1163/187398610X538696.
- ^ "Hamas spokesperson threatens Ma'an News Agency". Ma'an News Agency. 2007-07-07. Archived from the original on 2008-12-30. http://www.webcitation.org/5dRcUlyum. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
- ^ http://www.missionramallah.um.dk/en/servicemenu/News/PalestinianMaanNewsAmong1000MostPopular.htm
- ^ http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=PS&ts_mode=country&lang=none
[edit] External links
- - Ma'an, (English)
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