One-sided reporting on the Middle East Conflict
Posted on July 20, 2014 by admin in NewsThe following was sent to New Zealand Herald, Fairfax Media, Radio New Zealand, Television New Zealand, TV3, Radio Live and ZB Network.
We are writing to all of you because there are well established patterns of reporting which seem to have been adopted by New Zealand media, and much of the overseas media which gives a biased and unbalanced view of the Middle East for the New Zealand public.
There are three main issues with respect to media reporting we are raising:
- Over the past two weeks we have seen Palestinian fighters routinely referred to as Palestinian militants, Islamic militants and even Islamic terrorists. If anyone suggested, and we are not, that you describe Israeli troops as Jewish militants, Jewish extremists or Jewish terrorists then there would be howls of outrage so why are those labels to be continually applied Palestinians? Palestinians fighters are just that – Palestinian fighters – and should be referred to as such.
- The Israeli propaganda war taken up by mainstream media also includes referring to Palestinian deaths as people killed while Israeli deaths are the result of terrorism or murder.
- Israeli spokespeople are generally quoted directly in their own words while reporting of Palestinian views is almost always as an afterthought via third hand comment from unnamed spokespeople. We understand the difficulties for media in gaining interviews with Palestinian spokespeople given their targeting for assassination by Israel but there are many credible, well informed Palestinians living in New Zealand and elsewhere who can give accurate commentary for New Zealanders.
Broader reporting of the conflict has been so bad over many decades that a survey of public opinion in the UK a few years back showed the majority of people thought Palestinians were occupying Israeli rather than the reverse. The same could be the case in New Zealand.
On average one Palestinian youngster has been killed every 3 days for the past 13 years and yet you’d have no idea of this from the New Zealand media. One Israeli death and the hostile reaction from Israel which follows gets far greater coverage than hundreds of Palestinian deaths.
People here could also be forgiven for thinking the problem lies with rockets being fired into Israel from Gaza. This is perhaps the greatest falsehood because the problem all along has been Israel’s brutal military occupation of the West Bank; its medieval siege of Gaza; ongoing theft of Palestinian land; detention without trial of thousands of Palestinians and the refusal of Israel to allow the return of Palestinian refugees who were driven from their land and homes when Israel was formed.
We would appreciate if each of the media organisation to whom this letter is addressed could respond to us as soon as possible. Initially please respond to [email protected]
Regards,
- Palestine Human Rights Campaign (Billy Hania 021932182 or Janfrie Wakim 0276291004)
- Kia Ora Gaza (Roger Fowler 0212999491)
- Global Peace and Justice Auckland (Mike Treen 0295254744 or John Minto 0220850161
- Students for Justice in Palestine (Nadia Abu Shanab 0272359328)
- Palestine Solidarity Network (all of the above)
Photo courtesy of NZ Herald.
Brian John Evans says:
Post Author August 22, 2014 at 3:03 pmMy answer to Alan Duff sent to the NZ Herald August 21 2014
The Mana Party makes the sort of necessary combative noises against the ruling National party, many indigenous races have made, to survive. The Chinese fought against the British opium trade, the Red Indians similarly despised the white man’s firewater or alcohol and the Mana Party today battle to ban tobacco smoking. As Alan Duff wrote off the Mana and Internet Parties, as being just several named dog species then his Maori Party choice, I say, is ‘all lapdog with no guard-dog woof woof’, against unhealthy consumerism whatsoever.
Brian John Evans
http://upbigbro.com
This links John Key to Obama and is intended to bring them & the Zionist Media down! It fits onto a cellphone page neatly as a starter and must go viral!
tnga says:
Post Author September 7, 2014 at 12:56 pmI would like to comment about the media and how it protrays the Palestinians as terriosts and militants. The only terriost is the American Presidency – FBI- music industry etc…
The Israeli Jews in Jerusalem are not the same Jews of the bible, they are giddish Jews with Greek/Roman/bloodline.
The Israeli belong to the European countries they have no rights in Jerusalem, they are ruthless, barbaric, angry, blood thirsty animals. The Palestinians you can see are native people, their language, their customs and beliefs, Jerusalem belongs to them, western world, America trying to steal their minerals, have an alliance with Israel.
One day…
Eddie says:
Post Author September 8, 2014 at 3:33 pmThe terrorist state of Israel and the murderous Americans should not defeat Hamas, the elected leadership of an oppressed people, and continue the Apartheid opression and genocide. Those freedom fighters need to fulfill the will of their people as per their charter. Free Palestine!
Thank you for standing up for what is right, Mana. Kia Kaha.
Surreal says:
Post Author September 9, 2014 at 10:02 amEddie are you openly supporting genocide of the entire Jewish people? Because that is what the Hamas charter says. Is this what you mean?
Dorothy Finlay says:
Post Author September 8, 2014 at 6:04 pmI can hardly believe my eyes at the tripe that TNGA has to say!
I have lived among them both in Israel and good friends with both! I have to disagree with TNGA’s statement that the Jews today in Israel are not the same as in the Bible. How do you know. ? Jews have survived many attempts at genocide as in Spain in 1492 in the Inquisition, in UK when all Jews were exiled from Britain in 1290 for 400 years to name a few. They were treated like this because they were Jews. A Jew is nickname for a descendant of the tribe of Judah, whose descent came from Jacob, Isaac and Abraham in the Bible. Jews are also followers of the God of the Bible and practice kosher eating, Sabbath, Circumcision and follow the Torah or the first 5 books of the Old Testament. This is why Jews survived despite all the hatred and anti-semitism thrown at them throughout the world,, long before the Holocaust, they have maintained the same pattern of life and have always looked to Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel, declared to be by King David 3 thousand years ago.
Most Palestinans on the other hand have only been in the area known as Judea and Samaria aka West Bank, for 60-70 years,coming from other Middle Eastern countries since the Jews returned home according to the Bible. Islam is what drives the hatred that our writer displays, not truth or history. I know many Palestinians who are kind and friendly people and my good friends who do not hate and seek Israel’s destruction. They happen to live in Jerusalem.
Many Israeli Arabs are choosing to throw their lot in with Israel and in Jerusalem taken Israeli ID cards. The language Tnga uses is evidence of his/her bias against Israel. Truth will always prevail.
Anon says:
Post Author September 8, 2014 at 7:20 pmWhat a load of drivel, typical coming from the likes of Mana party and their rabid ring leader, John Minto, who I have seen shouting at traumatised Jewish kids in Auckland through a megaphone that they have “BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!”
I even filmed it, and watched with pleasure as the Police took him and his “rent a mob” away.
Israel is the only free democracy in an otherwise savage part of the world. Citizens have full rights. Rights to freedom of speech, religion, sexuaity and equal rights for men and women. This is not present in ANY other Arab country. Israel treats its Arab\Muslim citizens better than any Arab countries do to their own, including how Hamas treats (or should I say oppresses) it’s own people in Gaza.
People and groups like the Mana party who try to portray Israel as the terrorist and Hamas (globally recognised actual terrorist entity) do not speak on my behalf as a Kiwi. As a New Zealander who believes in freedom and a fair go, I wholeheartedly support Israel’s right to defend its people from genocidal maniacs like Hamas. Nobody can make peace with a group like that who’s mission as stated in their charter is not peace, but explicitly the destruction of Israel, the genocidal slaughter of every Jewish man, woman and child on Earth, and the subjugation of the entire world to Islam.
If there was a “downvote” box I could tick at these elections, it would certainly go to the Mana party and John Minto. Get a life.
Zion Rak Ben Adam says:
Post Author September 8, 2014 at 9:00 pmE te Rangatira, Tena koe.
This allegation of unbalanced media coverage in the middle eastern conflict is both biased and misleading.
It should be duly noted that both sides of this conflict spectrum, when presented with the same media coverage will find it biased against their side or interest, regardless of how stringent the journalist follows objectivity guidelines. This concept is known as “The hostile media effect”(a link to research around this concept can be found below).
The deeper issue here is the “us vs them” mentality. People love to categorize – gay/straight Male/female Good/Evil etc. We like people that belong to our group and disfavor those who we see as being outsiders. The news outlets design their articles to reach a wide range of people. This creates a perceived threat to Pro-Palestinian image. The Mana you feel for being Pro-Palestinian motivates you to defend your groups image. The way you achieve this is by taking the easy way out. You call into question the accuracy and balance of the news coverage.
Accusations of bias is a coping method which allows Pro (insert side) to reconcile views of their group which are inconsistent with their own.
Peace from the middle east (Parnell)
Rak Ben Adam.
1. http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~jpiliavi/965/hwang.pdf
Surreal says:
Post Author September 9, 2014 at 9:47 amWhat a strange planet Mana supporters live on. One in which an organisation with an openly genocidal intent, which uses all resources at its disposal to inflict maximum carnage on its enemy with callous disregard to its own people, must not be called terrorist. No, they must be called “fighters”.
Any powers of logic or rational thought they might have possessed have been overrided by their fanatical Jew hatred. Tnga’s comment says it all really. Hopefully the vast majority of NZers are smart enough to see this hateful, loony army for what it is.
Eddie says:
Post Author September 10, 2014 at 12:52 pmHere’s an article with quotes from officials. Is this baised also?
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=12585
Do you, Mana party, care to comment on this?
Eddie says:
Post Author September 10, 2014 at 12:55 pmHere’s another report
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4668/media-hamas-crimes
Quote: “Fatah’s leaders also accused Hamas of placing some 300 of their members in the Gaza Strip under house arrest during the war and “endangering them and their families’ lives by exposing them to Israeli airstrikes and shelling.”
In addition to the clampdown on Fatah members, Hamas militiamen confiscated food and medicine sent to the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and some “friendly countries,” the Fatah leaders disclosed. “Hamas distributed some of the aid among their men through mosques or sold it on the black market,” they said.
The Fatah charges against Hamas did not surprise many Palestinians, especially those living in the Gaza Strip, who witnessed some of the assaults on the Fatah members.
However, what is hard to understand is that many foreign journalists who entered the Gaza Strip during the war did not report about Hamas’s “ugliest crimes and violations.””
Is that unbalanced reporting also?
Please could Mana comment on this – do you condone?
Ed