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“Media caught in the crossfire”
25 June 2006According to Canada’s Globe and Mail, “Hamas and Fatah’s bitter rivalry makes Palestinian journalists’ jobs dangerous“. The article tells us how dangerous it is for Palestinian media to operate in the Palestinian Authority areas. “Censorship is nothing new to Palestinian journalists; in the late Yasser Arafat’s day, newspapers and television stations that were too critical of the Palestinian Authority or of his leadership could be shut down on a moment’s notice.” Also, “each side delivers threatening messages to journalists they believe are against them.”
Of course censorship of the Palestinian press (and the press in most Arab countries) is nothing new! Censorship is standard through most of the world - this is not news. What is news, is that the Western press is actually reporting on the censorship in the Palestinian Authority. Does this signal a shift in attitudes of the press to the bias of Palestinian media in this conflict? Reuters and AP Newswires coming from the PA are generally written by individuals with Arabic names - are these individuals biased, for fear that reporting the truth will lead to their deaths or because of an inherant bias? Are they Fatah biased or Hamas biased? Can we trust them in either case, let alone their sources for stories?
Western press has to realise that with lack of press freedom in the Palestinian Authority, stories coming from there will be biased. This article, while trying to minimize the insinuation that radicalism is rampant in the Palestinian Authority, is still an important one. It should be distributed far and wide, so that individuals will realize that what they read in the news is not necessarily the truth.
Tags:censorship , fatah , hamas , palestinian media , press freedom
