RAMALLAH, June 24, 2009 (WAFA)- Amin Media Network launched, Wednesday, Amin Blogging site in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO).

Head of the UNESCO office in Palestine, Ms. Louise Haxthausen, said that the project aims at encouraging citizen journalism in Palestine, in order to create an interactive environment between Palestinian citizens and Palestinian decision makers.

“We hope that each Palestinian citizen will have the opportunity to participate in discussing important issues in the Palestinian society via Amin Blogs; the blogs are a platform that provides everyone a space to express themselves freely, and without any sort of censorship.”

The project, said Ms Haxthausen, also includes training about 200 Palestinians on the basics of blogging and use of online journalism, in addition to issuing two handbooks; one on blogging and one on citizen journalism. These handbook would be the first of their kind translated into Arabic, according to Ms Haxthausen.