Nibal Thawabteh, editor-in-chief of the monthly Al-Hal paper, discusses the current and future working conditions of the Palestinian media, which suffer on many levels from the absence of an existing societal and legal structure.

Anyone wishing to take the pulse of press freedom in Palestine these days would need to listen to the heartbeats of our colleagues - when Al-Jazeera's vehicles are blown up; the moment when armed members of Fatah, Hamas or unidentified armed people  break into our offices.

"Why," asked a female student of media and communication, "are our journalists beaten, insulted and threatened? I am scared."

"Do not fear," I told her, "but you need to decide if you want to join this battle. We are all fighters. And in wars, there are only two choices: victory or defeat, considering that dying for a principle in which one believes will in fact amount to a victory."

Here I shall try to give some examples to best answer the question of the future journalist.

All those involved in our media, whether official or civil society, believe that responsible media should have a supervisory role, which is also why they are called the Fourth Estate. But what is one to do when there is neither a First Estate, nor a Second Estate, nor a Third Estate? Can one have a Fourth Estate, then?

At the same time, press freedom also requires an independent judiciary which could stand in the face of violations by the government, different groups or individuals. For instance, in April 2005, the Al-Hal newspaper ("Now" in Arabic) ran a front page story on the subject of "Al Zawag Alaorfy" in Palestine (a non-offical marriage in which the woman has no legal rights, common throughout the Arab region). The story accompanied by the picture of Basma, a woman involved in such a case, and her three sons who had not been given birth certificates due to the illegality of these "marriages". Following the newspaper article, the court dealt with the matter, even though it took three months, and she received an identity card with the names of her husband and her three sons. This calls for optimism. Here we are, affecting and changing a very important issue. The media coverage of the case led many other Basmas to open their hearts and speak about the injustices they had suffered. That is more than enough for us.

A free media environment also requires a general, democratic culture to nurture and support it, a culture that enjoys popular and official endorsement, acknowledging the legitimacy of differences of views, different approaches in news coverage and the comments that are presented to the readers.

When, for the first time in the history of the Palestinian press, Al-Hal wrote about lesbianism on 1 June 2005, the world got turned upside down and never regained its shape again. How did we dare publish something so controversial? We were indeed burned by the heat, but it is noteworthy that many readers contacted us to thank us for dealing with this great taboo in the Palestinian society.

Everybody also believes that a free press needs to be responsible, constructive and impartial in order to perform its duties to the best of its abilities. Many a time, those in the media do believe in the principles of democracy, pluralism, integrity and impartiality, but do not possess the skills that are needed to represent these values and implement them in their media practice.

I am not sure on which side the scales would tilt if we were to weigh our media- failures and fiascos, or achievements. I am sure, however, that we have enough to weigh - professional journalists who try constantly to add to the weight of achievements.

Nibal Thawabteh is the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Al-Hal monthly newspaper. She also works as the TV Unit Coordinator at Birzeit University and writes short stories.