Sunday 11 December 2011

The Committee to Protect Journalists blatant biais against Israel

At least 64 jounalists are in jail in Turkey  and 42 en Iran.  42 journalists were killed in 2011 (none in Israel).  But by cleverly using  a photo the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) points the finger at Israel!  The CPJ is "A group of U.S. foreign correspondents created CPJ in response to the often brutal treatment of their foreign colleagues by authoritarian governments and other enemies of independent journalism."

The CPJ, New York, posted a special report "Imprisonments jump worldwide, and Iran is worst - Stark regional differences are seen as jailings grow significantly in the Middle East and North Africa. Dozens of journalists are held without charge, many in secret prisons. A CPJ special report."  The photo they chose to illustrate this is "Here, Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian journalist. (Reuters)":

The CPJ is suggesting that Israelly prisons are full of journalists, is that the case? No.  The CPJ, does not say that in the Palestinian territories under the PA and in Gaza, journalists can work without fearing censorship and being jailed.

But there is more.  The way the CPJ lists the journalists imprisoned in Israel in 2011 is a model of misinformation: "Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: 7".  The last three on the list (Ziyad Awad, Mahmoud al-Barbar and Hani al-Agha) are Hamas prisoners.  It follows that for the CPJ the Gaza strip seems to be Israel and Hamas an Israeli organisation.  This type of biaised reporting is the best way to discredit journalists and journalism.

To get a better view of how journalists are both treated in Gaza and in the West Bank read  Khaled Abu Toameh's US and EU Funding Palestinian Repression and PA Tortures Journalists.

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