On Wednesday 11th December 2002, the social arm of Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah was one of three organisations to be added to Canada’s official list of “terrorist entities”. Canadian newspapers and politicians cited, as the ultimate deciding factor for Canada’s policy change towards Hizbullah, a statement attributed to its leader Hassan Nasrallah last month in which he allegedly urged Palestinians to undertake suicide bombings outside of Israel/Palestine, in locations around the world. But it has now emerged that the source of the remarks is suspect, meaning that an organisation widely recognised for its humanitarian contributions in desperate areas of the Middle East has been cut off from a considerable number of donors on the basis of a false account. EI’s Nigel Parry reports. Read more about False Washington Times report convinces Canada to ban Hizbullah
The Reuters article “Double standards” that appeared in the Oct 10th edition of the Economist was been widely circulated and lauded by pro-Israeli media monitoring groups as “seminal” (Honest Reporting, Oct 17) and “highly informative and balanced” (CAMERA alert, Oct 16). This dubious praise was only garnered because the article avoided a rather important fact… Read more about Economist: Main reason for UN inaction against Israel glossed over
NPR demonstrated a complete lack of skepticism about a report in the Washington Post citing shadowy and anonymous government sources claiming that Lebanon-based Al-Qaida-lined extremists obtained a deadly chemical weapon from Iraq. By failing to ask any hard questions, NPR served essentially as a transcription service for the government, rather than as an independent source of news and analysis. EI’s Ali Abunimah explains. Read more about NPR confuses irresponsible speculation for hard news
Journalists and media organizations have abdicated their role of providing an independent alternative source of information and have too often slumped toward over-reliance on anonymous government sources. Almost every reporter uses anonymous sources. But it is a rare reporter or editor who will repeatedly use this device to convey information that might help start a war. Writing in The Buffalo News, Douglas Turner is alarmed by increasing examples of careless use of anonymous sources, with the result that the public is often grossly misled about fundamental issues of life and death. Read more about Anonymous sources fueling push for war
When a Palestinian attack kills Israelis, the TV news networks are quick to cut to “breaking news” reports. Harrowing footage from the scene and interviews with outraged Israeli government officials are swiftly broadcast, and harsh statements are quickly issued by government and UN officials to appear in tomorrow’s front page newspaper stories. Meanwhile, the relentless killing of Palestinian civilians, many of them children, by the Israeli occupation army goes largely unnoticed and unreported. Read more about Invisible killings: Israel's daily toll of Palestinian children
Did the Income Tax Authority in Israel decide to harass hundreds of foreign media personnel in Israel for their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? The following report from Yediot Ahranot’s Arabic website looks at recent developments. Read more about Income Tax: Foreign Journalists in Israel
A 12 August 2001 action alert from pro-Israeli group CAMERA (“Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America”) made a series of baseless accusations against National Public Radio. EI’s Ali Abunimah reports. Read more about CAMERA's continued assault on NPR and the truth
Suzannne Goldenberg, the British Guardian’s correspondent in Israel till recently, is the topic of this article, which explains some of the realities that foreign correspondents must deal with working in Israel and the occupied territories. Nathan Guttman writes in Ha’aretz. Read more about As the spinning wheel turns
While NPR virtually ignored an Israeli death squad attack which killed six Palestinians, including two children, in the occupied West Bank town of Tulkarm, it has, as predicted, given blanket coverage to a suicide bombing which killed eleven Israelis in Jerusalem, writes EI’s Ali Abunimah Read more about NPR's unbalanced reporting of violence continues
While NPR reported quickly and repeatedly false Israeli claims of an appalling ambush of “Jewish worshippers” in Hebron, and highly dubious accounts of an alleged 9/11-style “hijacking attempt” of an El Al jet, it has been completely silent this morning about the overnight killings of six Palestinians, two of them children, as an Israeli undercover death squad carried out the extrajudicial execution at his home of 25-year-old Mohammed Zaghal in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm. Read more about NPR ignores killing of six Palestinians, two children
