 | |
| Founded | 2005 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Raed Othman |
| Headquarters | |
| Website | www.maannews.net |
Ma'an News Agency (MNA;Arabic:وكالة معا الإخبارية) is a large wire service created in 2005 in thePalestinian territories.[1][2] It is part of the Ma'an Network, anon-governmental organization media network created in 2002[1] in the Palestinian territories among independent journalists throughout theWest Bank andGaza Strip. It has partnerships with eight local television stations and twelve local radio stations. Ma'an News Agency publishes news 24 hours a day inArabic,Hebrew andEnglish, 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 based inBethlehem and it has an office inGaza.
The Ma'an Network was launched in 2002 as a partnership between Bethlehem TV and local Palestinian media organizations. The nameMa'an is the Arabic word for "together". The group is run by Raed Othman, the former manager of Bethlehem TV. Ma'an has produced threesoap operas (one of which,Mazih fi Jad (Joking Seriously), was described as the first television drama series produced in thePalestinian territories), numerous news and public affairs programs and thetelevision filmKafah. Ma'an's programs are broadcast by ten independentterrestrial television stations in theWest Bank and occasionally by theFatah-runPalestine TV satellite broadcaster.[3][4]
The Ma'an News Agency was launched in 2005 with funding from theDanish andDutch Representative Offices to thePalestinian National Authority.[1] The news agency is the most visible component of the Ma'an Network.[4]
Ma'an's offices in Gaza were severely damaged in theGaza war by the Israeli bombing of the Al-Watan tower in Gaza City on 8 October 2023.[5][6]
A photographer from the agency, Abdel Nasser al-Laham, was arrested by Israeli forces on 16 October 2023, and was held without charge in the military'sOfer Prison.[7]
Ma'an News Agency says that it "scrupulously maintains its editorial independence and aims to promoteaccess to information,freedom of expression, press freedom, and media pluralism in Palestine."[1] In an interview with media scholar Matt Sienkiewicz, former Ma'anChief 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 Ma'an Network comes from advertising revenue and from foreign donors.[1][3][4]
In July 2007, at the time thede facto Gaza Strip government, MNA alleged that MNA's chief editor had received "direct threats" fromHamas to carry out a "defamation campaign" against MNA, and to cease its criticism of "the Hamas movement".[8]
In July 2013, Hamas closed the Gaza City bureaus of Ma'an andAl-Arabiya after the outlets reported that Hamas was sheltering Muslim Brotherhood figures who had fled Egypt. Hamas officials also questioned Ma’an News bureau chief Emad Eid for several hours on 30 July. According to Ma’an News director-general Raed Othman, Hamas objected to Ma'an using sources from Israeli media. The bureau reopened in November.[9]
Ma'an News Agency describes itself as "the main source of independent news from Palestine" and "the premier source of independent Palestinian news on the internet".[1] According to a 2007 survey, 95.6% of Palestinians with internet access "frequently visit" the site.[10] As of December 2013, Ma'an News receives the fourth most site visitors in the Palestinian territories.[11]
In 2013, Ma'an TV (Ma'an Network's satellite channel) broadcast the hit reality showThe President in collaboration withSearch for Common Ground. Described as "a cross betweenAmerican Idol andThe Apprentice", audience members would vote through SMS to elect the show's young contestants who competed in mock press conferences, political campaigns, and debates.[12][13]
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a right-wing NGO that claims to reveal bias in Palestinian media,[14][15][16][better source needed][17][18][19][20] criticized Ma'an for "sanitizing" its English-language reporting while publishing in Arabic reports that "include the hate ideology espoused by the terror organizations that deny Israel's right to exist [and] express reverence for suicide terrorists."[21]
According toThe New York Times during the spate of Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israelis in 2015, Ma'an inaccurately reported that a young knife attacker had been "murdered" by Israeli police, (he was wounded and taken for treatment atHadassah Hospital), "In a video report accusing Israel of faking evidence of other knife attacks, a reporter for the Palestinian news agency Ma'an described the clip as evidence of "murder" and claimed in her narration that the video showed the boy lying on the ground when "an Israeli occupation soldier shoots him in the head," which it does not."[22]