12 Jan 09 | Uncategorized
Is the BBC’s quest for balance actually distorting its coverage of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza? Index on Censorship Chief Executive John Kampfner thinks it might be:
‘Language, as any propagandist knows, is the most important tool. Hamas fighters are called “militants”. That, I am told, is a halfway house between “terrorist” and more sympathetic labels such as “guerrillas”. The Israeli army is often referred to by its formal title, the Israel Defence Forces. The bombardment of Gaza has regularly been described as “the Israeli operation”. Such language denudes coverage of impact.’
Read the rest at Media Guardian
09 Jan 09 | Comment, Middle East and North Africa
Coverage of events in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli media has rarely transcended propaganda, writes Dimi Reider
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08 Jan 09 | Middle East and North Africa, News and features
Frustration is growing over Israel’s refusal to allow journalists into the Gaza Strip. Padraig Reidy reports
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05 Jan 09 | Uncategorized
Rachel Shabi in the Guardian points out the role of Israel’s recently-created National Information Directorate in the portrayal of the conflict in Gaza. The Directorate was set up after an inquiry in to the second Lebanon war in 2006, with the aim of co-ordinating the message going out to international media.
But propaganda and censorship could yet backfire. Robert Fisk is critical of the IDF’s barring of foreign journalists from Gaza. When the Israelis did this in 2000, exaggerated claims of a massacre in Jenin emerged, without the possibility of verification by independent reporters.
