The seminar was attended by the wife of the Turkish President, Emine Erdogan, the head of the Communications Department, Burhanettin Duran, the Minister of Family and Social Services, Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas, as well as the Director General of Anadolu Agency and Chairman of its Board of Directors, Serdar Karagoz.
The symposium featured speeches by Amina Erdogan, TRT Arabic journalist Sumaya Abu Na’ma, and Oscar-winning Palestinian journalist and director Basil Adra.
In a speech she delivered before the symposium, Abu Na’ma said that she left her two children in Istanbul and went to Gaza on October 7, 2023, and remained a witness for two months to what happened during the war.
She explained that the residents of Gaza "are struggling with hunger and are being displaced from place to place under bombardment," stressing that "the occupation is still continuing its aggression."
She pointed to the double standards of the international community, saying: "The world is doing its utmost to find the body of one settler in Gaza, but it does not say a word about the thousands of children and families under the rubble."
She added that the voice of the Palestinians still reaches the world thanks to journalists and women who report on what is happening on the ground.
For his part, Palestinian director Basel Adra said that journalists cannot obtain visas to go to the West Bank and report what is happening there to the public.
He explained that Israel arrests Palestinians "without any legal justification or trial," adding: "Most of these detainees are journalists, and their only crime is taking pictures, practicing journalism, and telling the truth."
Adra pointed out that the Western media distorts the facts, saying: "Fighting the truth is a policy that the occupation forces have followed for a long time, and unfortunately the main Western media outlets serve these policies and continue to manipulate the facts."
He recounted that he began filming the events around him out of anger at the violence, arrests, and house raids he had experienced since childhood, emphasizing: "I found the strength I needed to continue filming, telling the truth, and continuing to tell my story to the world."
