Gaza's Earthquake Hits the Media Gaza's Earthquake Hits the Media
2009-01-26 The Gaza earthquake hit squarely the international media and the Arabic one in particular and placed it before a real "trial" whose judges are its victims, that is, the victims of this media in all its forms, readers, viewers, and opinion makers, and even members of the profession itself. The accusation is the moral, legal, and professional lapse because of the submission to the direct and indirect Israeli control. Arab and foreign television channels, newspapers, and radios passed this test or trial with much success when they sided with professionalism and objectivity and presented the real facts about the Israeli massacres in the Gaza Strip by voice and video without any interference. Others were caught biased towards the butcher and tried to improve his ugly image, like the British Broadcasting Corporation, "BBC", in all its branches and television and radio channels. The BBC's major moral and professional lapse is represented by its refusal to screen the "Gaza appeal" by more than 15 British humanitarian charities to collect contributions for the victims of the Israeli aggression under the pretext of impartiality while several other British channels, including Channels 4 and 5 and "ITV" broadcast the appeal. Large demonstrations surrounded the BBC's main headquarters during the past two days demanding that it back down on its decision and 50 parliamentary deputies did the same as well while John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, accused the BBC of being biased towards one side against the other and said "the appeal is not from Hamas so as to get weapons, but for relief. This "awakening", which was reflected in strong editorials in most British newspapers criticizing this establishment that is financed by the British taxpayer, confirms what we have always reiterated about the Israeli lobby's total control of it after succeeding in intimidating it into withdrawing some of its correspondents from occupied Palestine or sending thousands of protest letters after each programme that dealt with aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I learned personally from authoritative sources inside the BBC that Israeli circles imposed what amounted to an unwritten blacklist that includes the names of some Arab experts in Middle East aairs whom they accuse of extremism and demanded to reduce their appearance if not ban them completely. The Jewish Chronicle newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Jewish community and fierce defender of Israel, published in its issue before last a list of what it called television analysts critical of Israel, mocked their professionalism in a blatant incitement, and said they are not objective and have "their own agendas." The writer of this article topped the list with a brief profile of him accompanied by his photo. Dr Richard Volk, the UN coordinator in the Gaza Strip, came second and Norwegian Dr Mads Gilbert who carried out dozens of operations for the Israeli aggression's victims at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza came third. Jon Snow, the famous broadcaster at Britain's Channel 4 who is known for his courageous stand, produced a documentary with his colleague David Niblick, the director and photographer, which was screened on Thursday night. It dealt with most of the international media organs' submission to the oicial Israeli terrorism and the tight control imposed by the Israeli government on these organs, including preventing them from entering the Gaza Strip and bombarding them with thousands of letters and misleading documents and information about this war. The film showed how channels like "Al-Jazeera" succeeded in its both Arabic and English transmission in presenting a live image of the Israeli damage, the bodies of the children martyrs, and the thousands of displaced persons following the bombardment of their houses with missiles. The documentary presented unscreened testimonies and photos of the victims and their relatives and concluded that the world would not have remained silent had it seen them earlier and would not have allowed Israel to continue the barbaric killings for three weeks without any foreign pressures. BBC Director General Mark Thompson took several provocative decisions in the past which exposed his bias towards Israel over the past 10 years and his submission to it intimidation and that of the lobby loyal to it in Britain. But this last decision refusing to broadcast a humanitarian appeal should be the last and he must resign immediately. There is a consensus in Britain that there are three establishments that have the worst management and these are the BBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the British Airports Authority. We do not exaggerate when we said that the BBC occupies first place. Colleague Tim Llewellyn, who worked as its Middle East correspondent for 30 years, was right when he said "it is a corporation of lions led by asses. The lapse was not confined to the Western world or some of its establishments but also unfortunately includes the Arab media which neither it nor those in charge of it have any excuse because it is in the region and supposed to know all its details. Some of this media's organs and those of them belonging to the so-called moderation axis have regrettably proved to be more biased towards the Israeli aggression than some of the Israeli television channels. At the peak of the genocide war by the Israeli aircraft, tanks, and gunboats against the sons of the Gaza Strip, those calling themselves neo-liberals were dominating the screens of the above axis blaming the victim and shamelessly holding it responsible for the killings and destruction. We heard a group of them mocking the jihad duty and demanding total capitulation to the enemies. The oicial Egyptian media, which costs the state's treasury several billion dollars each year in a country where at least two thirds of its population subsist on less than 2 dollars a day, launched a fierce campaign throughout the days of the war, and continues to do so to this day, which was aimed at brainwashing the ordinary and simple citizen, mobilizing his Egyptian patriotic feelings, and using them against the Arabs and Palestinians in order to cover up the foreign policy's failure to deal with the "Gaza tragedy." Everyone who criticized this failed government policy that was insulting to Egypt, its role, history, and people became an agent of Iran, Syria, and Qatar and the issue became the "Arab attack on Egypt. What assures us is that the Gaza events and the legendary steadfastness during them proved despite all the media campaigns of deception that the Arab peoples, and the Egyptian one in particular, are smarter than all these abnormal voices and the evidence is the unprecedented demonstrations in small cities like Tanta and Damanhur and even remote villages in which hundreds of thousands took part. More importantly, the governmental Arab media and the Egyptian one in particular and despite the billions of dollars spent on it in the form of fantastic salaries and limitless privileges failed in its mission of whitewashing the faces of the regimes colluding with the Israeli aggression. It also failed to win the minimum level of respect inside and outside the Arab homeland, apart from the Israelis' respects. Some of its symbols caused dismay and shame and one of the independent Egyptian newspapers was more than correct when it wrote in its headline: "They have scandalized us. The Gaza war constituted a turning point in Arab history. It will change many equations and the most notable of them is the school of media blackout, the blatant bias towards the aggression, and the submission to Israeli intimidation and dictates. Public opinion cannot allow after today the silence over the ethnic cleansing policies and state terrorism, especially if these are Israeli, on the pretext of false objectivity and professionalism. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Kantakji Group" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/kantakjigroup?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
