Media

Government retaliates against BBC, accuses it of demonizing Israel


Reporters Without Borders today condemned the Israeli government for announcing on 1 July that is cutting all links with the BBC, Britain’s state-owned TV and radio broadcaster, on the grounds that it “systematically demonizes” Israel and carries reports “verging on antisemitism.” Describing the accusations against the BBC as “disgraceful and pathetic,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said the Israeli government “has trouble accepting the editorial freedom of certain news media when it doesn’t serve its interests.” 

Unacceptable inferences about ISM in Associated Press article

Following a 26 June 2003 Associated Press article “Israelis Exonerated in Activist’s Death”, which would have been more honestly titled “Israel exonerates itself in activist’s death,” EI’s Nigel Parry wrote to AP International Editor Sally Jacobsen to protest the writer’s unjustifiable linking of the International Solidarity Movement with terrorism. 

NPR--Gradstein's report on "mixed" school

“Today on Morning Edition, Linda Gradstein gave an upbeat report about a mixed school for Palestinian citizens of Israel and Jews. She reported how successful the school is and how more and more parents are signing up. She stated that “normally” Arabs and Jews attend separate schools in Israel. But she left out one tiny little detail….” EI’s Ali Abunimah takes NPR to task for reporter Linda Gradstein’s latest distortions. 

Boycotting the Beeb


Israel joined Zimbabwe last weekend as one of two countries boycotting the BBC. The move was taken in protest of the “biased and hostile coverage policy,” as Danny Seaman, the head of the Government Press Office in Jerusalem put it. Although Israel has not gone so far as to expel journalists, as did Zimbabwe, “A decision to expel all BBC correspondents has not been ruled out,” Seaman says. At this stage, Israel is making do with measures designed to make life more difficult for the BBC. Sharon Sadeh reports in Ha’aretz. 

BBC Transcript of "Israel's Secret Weapon" (part 1)

Israel declared over the weekend that it is cutting off ties with the BBC to protest a repeat broadcast of a documentary about non-conventional weapons said to be in Israel. The program was broadcast for the first time in March in Britain, and was rerun Saturday on a BBC channel that is aired all over the world. The boycott decision was made by Israel’s public relations forum, made up of representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry and the Government Press Office. It was decided that government offices won’t assist BBC producers and reporters, that Israeli officials will not give interviews to the British network, and that the Government Press Office will make it difficult for BBC employees to get press cards and work visas in Israel. Before the broadcast Saturday, Israeli officials tried to pressure the BBC to cancel the broadcast, saying that the program was biased and presented Israel as an evil dictatorship. Here is a complete transcript of the program. 

Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post duel over democracy

It wasn’t a border dispute so much as a margin dispute. More to the point, it was the highly-flammable material between the margins that fueled last week’s clash over press freedoms and democracy between two of Israel’s most influential newspapers. Compared with the leading Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot (published only in Hebrew and with a weekday circulation of 350,000), the dailies Haaretz (50,000 per weekday) and The Jerusalem Post, (a mere 15,000 per weekday) are not the biggest players on the Israeli media market. But both Haaretz and The Post command an influence beyond their numbers in Israel. Must-reading among visiting diplomats and journalists, the weekly international edition of The Post, and the two papers’ English Web sites draw large numbers of American Jews, thereby informing the Middle East debate within the world’s largest, most powerful Jewish Diaspora community. So when Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken floated the charge that Israeli press freedoms where in jeopardy, word washed up on American shores.” Jacob Laksin writes in 

Illuminating Thomas Friedman


A webpage on Thomas Friedman, maintained by Farrar, Straux & Giroux, declares that as the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, he is in a “unique position to interpret the world for American readers. Twice a week, Friedman’s commentary provides the most trenchant, pithy, and illuminating perspective in journalism.” M. Shahid Alam pitches in. 

US media ignore Israeli violence after Aqaba summit


Following the 4 June Aqaba summit between President Bush and Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the US media fell quickly into the pattern of ignoring or severely downplaying Israeli attacks on Palestinians, and playing up Palestinian counterviolence as a threat to a budding “peace process.” The media, rather than correcting the record, simply amplify the distortions. Palestinians are unjustly blamed for ‘reigniting’ a cycle of violence that in reality never paused for a single day. EI’s Ali Abunimah reports. 

Violence and the Road Map: The US Media's Double Standard


“It was an all too familiar scene in Afula on 19 May 2003. Screams, sirens and blood stained ground. When Hiba Daraghmeh detonated the explosives strapped around her just outside a shopping mall, she took the lives of three innocent people in a most brutal fashion. The American media was quick to report that the recent bombings would hurt the peace process, but they gave little note to the numerous obstructions that Ariel Sharon’s government has placed, or the Israeli army’s continued unprovoked attacks on Palestinian cities.” Ben Granby reports. 

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