[Media-watch] only just got this

[Tim Gopsill]

Israel Tries to Manipulate Media Reporting
 

The Israeli government has launched a campaign to curtail critical coverage of their policies towards the Palestinians by threatening and bullying international news agencies and individual journalists.  Last week a number of news agencies reported that government officials were trying to force agencies to cover stories Israel believed would liken the Palestinian resistance to global Islamist terrorism.  

 

The most serious charge was levelled at the former RTE journalist, Orla Guerin, who was accused of anti-Semitism over her report about the potential child suicide bomber stopped at an Israeli checkpoint.  Ms. Guerin, who now works for the BBC, observed that journalists were forbidden from speaking to the boy and were only given the Israeli army's version of events. She also described how the army had "paraded the child in front of the international media".  It later transpired that the army had got a few 'facts' wrong including details that the boy was sixteen and not twelve as had been initially reported.  In addition, Israeli embassies around the world had pressured local news networks to cover the incident - warning that failure to do so would constitute anti-Israel bias. 

 

Ms. Guerin is a highly respected journalist who has covered conflicts in Kosovo, Macedonia, Russia and the Basque country and won the Jacob's Award for her work at RTE.  However, Israel has repeatedly attacked her reporting, claiming anti-Israel bias and threatened to expel the BBC.  Israeli newspapers have also joined the offensive and have called for other journalists from several British and French news agencies, including Sky's Emma Hurd, to be expelled.

 

As a measure of the effectiveness of the Israeli campaign, Israeli officials have begun to boast that one phone call to CNN's headquarters in Atlanta is all it takes for them to get a story pulled from that network.  Furthermore, the BBC has also been forced to appoint a senior editorial post to advise on its Middle East coverage and Sky's editors have been threatened with the loss of Israeli commentators and interviewee's from their show.

 

This is a serious attack on the very ideals upon which democracy is built and should be halted immediately.  Freedom of speech should remain sacred and should not be curtailed just because it may be uncomfortable to certain parties.  The international community should be kept informed of the true horrors of the Israeli occupation so that pressure can be maintained on the Israeli government to end its policies.

 

 

Issued by the General Delegation of Palestine

Thursday 18th March 2004

Contact details:            (01) 661 8028

                                    (01) 661 8031

Ali Halimeh                   (086) 829 9918