Israelis support their airstrikes, but are they getting the whole story?

[bigtree]

July 19, 2006

Israeli censor wields great power over coverage of rocket attacks

By BENJAMIN HARVEY | Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) - Here's news you may never hear about Israel's war against Hezbollah: a missile falls into the sea, a strategic military installation is hit, a Cabinet minister plans to visit the front lines.

All such topics are subject to review by Israel's chief military censor who has, in her own words, "extraordinary power" _ to shut down papers, block information and throw journalists in jail.

"I can, for example, publish an order that no material can be published. I can close a newspaper or shut down a station. I can do almost anything, and I can put people in jail," Col. Sima Vaknin said Wednesday.

Israel believes that as a small country in a near constant state of conflict, having a say over what information gets out to the world is vital to its security. Critics say the policy is a slippery slope not fit for a democracy.

The range of issues subject to censorship are all related to the same simple goal: Israel's desire to prevent Hezbollah from using the media to help it better aim the rockets it is firing into Israel.


full report: http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/46667.html

[Poll_Blind]

1. Like all forms of censorship during times of military conflict, it is a...

...tool useful to the protection of the people up to a point.

  Having been a regular reader of a number of Israeli newspapers for years I'd say they have much more freedom of the press in Israel than we do here. Conservative organizations, newspaper editors, et al. in the United States have such a lock-down on our information that we in America do not, generally, get as clear or honest a picture of what's going on in Israel as they Israelis get from their own papers. That's an opinion based on my experience, anyway.

PB

[bigtree]

2. thanks for your perspective

very helpful

[Kagemusha]

3. Ha'aretz publishes what US papers will self-censor.

The military censor won't do nearly as much as US media do to themselves under political pressure.

[Master Mahon]

4. I would have to agree here

I find articles in Haaretz concerning Israeli (and US) issues that seem quite 'fair and balanced'. Similiarly, I would not expect to see then in the US mainstream media. I do not know much about the paper but it doesn't seem to be censored much at all.

[Laotra]

5. Unknown unknowns

That is the whole point. But this gives some credence to the Independent's report couple days ago that Hezbollah some time ago identified IDF surveillance base with unmanned drone and now hit it with rockets.

[bigtree]

6. interesting adjunct

Little interest in deaths and no sense that Israel has gone too far

Jonathan Pearlman in Jerusalem
July 21, 2006
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/little-interest-in-deaths-and-no-sense-that-israel-has-gone-too-far/2006/07/20/1153166518262.html

ON ISRAELI television . . .

When attention turns to the victims of Israeli missiles, the footage usually turns grainy. This is because Lebanon forbids Israeli reporters from entering, so most stories of the army's strikes are relayed via Arab television.

Alternatively, the footage of the strikes is Israeli-filmed and in black and white, shot through the sights of fighter jets.

Like the US in its Iraq campaign, the army releases such recordings to confirm a prevalent assumption about its campaign: the vast majority of Israelis believe that - unlike the Katyushas that fall haphazardly across the country's north - its missiles are aimed with precision at legitimate targets. The editor of the Israeli English-language newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, David Horovitz, said Israeli media reflected the view that the military had responded appropriately to the threat from Hezbollah.

In contrast, the broadsheet, Ha'aretz, the Post and most television and radio stations run stories on the situation in Lebanon and casualties on both sides. But the principal focus is on victims of the Katyushas, the progress of the campaign and the diplomatic efforts to end the crisis.

Maariv's Arab affairs correspondent, Jacky Khugi, said there had been little interest in the death toll, but this would change . . .

more: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/little-interest-in-deaths-and-no-sense-that-israel-has-gone-too-far/2006/07/20/1153166518262.html