Media and the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
Encyclopedia
Media played an important part of the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict. Foreign press access to Gaza has been limited since November 2008 via either Egypt or Israel. On 29 December 2008, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered that journalists be allowed into Gaza whenever the crossings were opened, but the IDF
refused to comply. There have been arrests of journalists due to violations of wartime censorship
in Israel, and these have been denounced by international press organizations. Media infrastructure, including Al-Aqsa TV
transmission equipment and foreign and local press offices, were hit during the conflict. Media relations also played an important role, with the use of new media
on the part of Israel, as well as a clear public relations
campaign.
there were number of cases of violence targeted at foreign journalists claimed by previously unknown groups sometimes linked to Al Qaeda. The most notable case is kidnapping of BBC journalist, Alan Johnston
. Palestinian security sources urged all foreigners (especially Europeans and Americans), including aid workers of international organizations, to leave Gaza soil "for fears of new kidnappings". Hamas
is known to take part in negotiation
and release of hostages in many cases. Subsequently the Foreign Press Association issued a statement saying Gaza had become a "no-go zone". International organisations instead relied on their local staff to gather information.
and Egypt
, the only two countries sharing borders with Gaza
, have refused access to Gaza by foreign journalists since November 2008. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled on December 29 that journalists must be allowed access to Gaza at times when the main border crossing is open, but the military has not complied. A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in the United Kingdom
said that Israel was restricting entry into Gaza because Gaza is a war zone, and that other countries would do the same.
Various press associations and organizations have called this ban as "unprecedented", and the Foreign Press Association (FPA) of Israel called the ban a "violation of press freedom" as practiced by other regimes. The International Federation of Journalists
said that the ban on foreign media entering Gaza, combined with the Military Censor's now following strict guidelines issued by the head censorship office in Israel, meant that the world was not being allowed to see what is happening in Gaza.
As of January 2009, Al Jazeera
, whose reporters Ayman Mohyeldin
and Sherine Tadros
were already inside Gaza when the conflict began, is the only international broadcaster with a journalist reporting from inside Gaza. The BBC
has a local producer Rushdi Abu Alouf
within Gaza.
The New York Times reported on January 10 that "Israel has also managed to block cellphone bandwidth, so very few amateur cellphone photographs are getting out of Gaza."
On January 18, journalists entered Gaza via the Erez crossing after a ceasefire was declared.
Hamas officials stopped the BBC from filming at one site, possibly because there was a military target nearby.
destroyed the facilities and headquarters of Al-Aqsa TV
(though broadcasts continue from elsewhere), and on January 5, the IDF bombed the offices of the Hamas-affiliated Al-Risala newsweekly. On January 9, the IDF hit the Johara tower of Gaza City, which houses more than 20 international news organizations, including Turkish, French, and Iranian outlets. Haaretz
publish video tape of Gaza reporter confirming Hamas fired rockets near TV offices. Gaza reporter Hanan Al-Masri from Johara tower on Al-Arabiya: "A Grad rocket from here? It's here. Listen, it's here, below the building...". Al-Jazeera reported that at least one journalist was injured in the attack and Press TV
reported that satellite transmission equipment was damaged. An IDF Spokesperson's Unit
said the building had not been targeted, though it may have sustained collateral damage
.
working for an Iranian TV station were arrested by Israeli authorities on January 12, and charged with violating IDF censorship
protocols for allegedly reporting on the IDF ground offensive into Gaza hours before they were given permission. The journalists denied the charges, maintaining that they merely reported what was being said in the international media. One Italian journalist, after obtaining clearance from the IDF to travel to Netzarim
, was fired on at an Israeli checkpoint even after renewed telephonic contact with the military authorities about the incident led to assurances he could proceed safely.
Government Press Office chief Daniel Seaman on January 25 denied that Israeli government policy banned foreign reporters from Gaza from 8 November 2008 through 21 January 2009, and denigrated the media as "crybabies...unwilling to make effort" to get to Gaza, and asserted that all but 3 percent act as "a figleaf for Hamas". The Foreign Press Association had petitioned Israel's High Court to get unfettered access to the Gaza strip. Press restriction appears to have been part of the propaganda campaign of Operation Cast Lead
Nachman Shai, a former Israeli army spokesman, claimed that Israel's tight regulation of the media was a reaction to "confusing" repoting during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
. The Foreign Press Association of Israel released a statement saying, “The unprecedented denial of access to Gaza for the world’s media amounts to a severe violation of press freedom and puts the state of Israel in the company of a handful of regimes around the world which regularly keep journalists from doing their jobs.”
reported that Israeli Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni
"instructed senior ministry officials to open an aggressive and diplomatic international public relations
campaign in order to gain support for Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip." Israeli officials at embassies and consulates worldwide have mounted campaigns in local media, and to that end have recruited people who speak the native language. Israel has also opened an international media centre in Sderot
. Deputy Israel's consulate in New York
began holding online press conferences on Twitter
, a microblogging
website.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Majallie Whbee has criticised some of the international media for not showing the Israeli perspective, saying that some outlets "have often failed to report on the pervasive Kassam
attacks that preceded the [current] violence", according to the Jerusalem Post.
There has been a YouTube
channel opened by IDF Spokesperson's Unit
, with many combat videos and a narrative video log. The videos are intended to bolster Israel's positions on contentious issues. The accuracy of one of the videos has been disputed B'Tselem
and Human Rights Watch
who claimed that a purported Israeli strike on militants, in fact, killed several civilians. Hamas has also launched a Youtube-like video site broadcasting criticism of Fatah and videos of Hamas attacks and Israeli casualty numbers.
headline "Better Late Than Never" and the Maariv
headline "Fighting Back." Keshev, an Israeli media watchdog group, said Israeli television channels dispatched their anchors to towns hit by Hamas rockets, but provided little attention to reports of the devastation inside Gaza. As an example, Yizhar Be'er, head of Keshev, cited the relatively little Israeli coverage afforded to the deaths of almost 50 people on January 6 airstrikes on three United Nations
schools, which Israeli forces mistakenly believed were used as militant hide-outs. Regarding the overall coverage, Be'er said:
A Channel 10 senior editor acknowledged a large amount of patriotism in coverage of the conflict, but attributed it largely to Israel's refusal to allow journalists into Hamas and the army's restrictions over information coming from the battlefield. He told the Agence France-Presse
, "There are no means to develop criticism because we receive very few details from the army on the fighting inside Gaza... When there is no criticism there is more room for patriotism."
received accusations of bias, both for and against Israel, during the conflict, but received particularly intense criticism for its decision not to broadcast a television appeal by aid agencies for victims of the airstrikes against Gaza. BBC officials said the decision stemmed from a policy of maintaining impartiality in the dispute. But many parties criticized the decision, including both Church of England
archbishops, British government ministers
and even some BBC employees. BBC officials described the criticism as unprecedented, including more than 11,000 complaints in a three-day span. Some protests have accused the company of giving in to pressure from Israel or Jewish groups, while others attribute it to a fear of controversy in light of prior embarrassments over Middle East
coverage; the BBC has strongly denied both claims.
A study by Arab Media Watch
, an London
-based watchdog striving for objective coverage of Arab issues in the British media, states the BBC decision was only one example of a pro-Israel bias in the British press. According to the study, when the British press represents one party as retaliating, the party is Israel more than three-quarters of the time; in the tabloid press, Israel is portrayed as the relatiating party 100 percent of the time. Violent actions by Israel were portrayed as "retaliations" three times more often than they were portrayed as "provocations." An Arab Media Watch advisor said "inevitably, these trends in reporting leave Palestinian violence largely unexplained, causing it to appear as unwarranted 'aggression.'"
, a correspondent for New York Times, was among the few correspondents reporting from Gaza during the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
after Israel prevented correspondents from crossing the Gaza-Israel border. El-Khodary describes herself as among the "very few objective reporters" covering the conflict. She was praised for the "in-depth, balanced coverage" of the conflict.
El-Khodary, who covered the conflict from a position near the Al-Shifa Hospital
, was criticized for failing to cover Hamas' use of homes, mosques, hospitals and schools for weapons storage, not reporting on Hamas' use of human shields, not reporting on Hamas' use of children as to assist soldiers, not reporting on Hamas' wartime execution of accused "collaborators," and not reporting on the location of the Hamas leadership in a bunker beneath the Shifa Hospital. The Times was accused of failing to balance reports by a journalist whose "personal perspective" placed blame for the conflict on Israel alone. As El-Khodary put it in a CNN interview, "The real issue" in the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict is "The Israeli military occupation." And of publishing a distorted picture of, as El-Khodary expressed it, a situation in which "ordinary people are squeezed between suicidal fighters and a military behemoth," and of covering civilian casualties in Gaza "to the virtual exclusion of any other issues."
, hacktivism
and cyber warfare (both on the part of the combatants and polities directly involved and of independent, private parties) which resulted in numerous website defacements, denial-of-service attacks and domain name and account hijackings. An opt-in anti-Hamas botnet
created by Israeli students appeared, and new media diplomacy appeared on social networking sites such as Facebook
and Second Life
, and on new media such as Twitter
.
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
refused to comply. There have been arrests of journalists due to violations of wartime censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
in Israel, and these have been denounced by international press organizations. Media infrastructure, including Al-Aqsa TV
Al-Aqsa TV
Al-Aqsa TV is the official Hamas-run television channel. Its programming includes news talk, children's shows , and religiously inspired entertainment...
transmission equipment and foreign and local press offices, were hit during the conflict. Media relations also played an important role, with the use of new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
on the part of Israel, as well as a clear public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
campaign.
Background
Following Israel withdrawal from GazaIsrael's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut", was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from...
there were number of cases of violence targeted at foreign journalists claimed by previously unknown groups sometimes linked to Al Qaeda. The most notable case is kidnapping of BBC journalist, Alan Johnston
Kidnapping of Alan Johnston
The kidnapping of Alan Johnston, a BBC journalist, by the Palestinian Durmush Hamula in Gaza City began on 12 March 2007 and lasted for nearly four months ....
. Palestinian security sources urged all foreigners (especially Europeans and Americans), including aid workers of international organizations, to leave Gaza soil "for fears of new kidnappings". Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
is known to take part in negotiation
Negotiation
Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties, intended to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy...
and release of hostages in many cases. Subsequently the Foreign Press Association issued a statement saying Gaza had become a "no-go zone". International organisations instead relied on their local staff to gather information.
Foreign press in Gaza
IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, the only two countries sharing borders with Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
, have refused access to Gaza by foreign journalists since November 2008. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled on December 29 that journalists must be allowed access to Gaza at times when the main border crossing is open, but the military has not complied. A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
said that Israel was restricting entry into Gaza because Gaza is a war zone, and that other countries would do the same.
Various press associations and organizations have called this ban as "unprecedented", and the Foreign Press Association (FPA) of Israel called the ban a "violation of press freedom" as practiced by other regimes. The International Federation of Journalists
International Federation of Journalists
International Federation of Journalists, IFJ, is a global union federation of journalists' trade unions—the largest in the world. The organization aims to protect and strengthen the rights and freedoms of journalists...
said that the ban on foreign media entering Gaza, combined with the Military Censor's now following strict guidelines issued by the head censorship office in Israel, meant that the world was not being allowed to see what is happening in Gaza.
As of January 2009, Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
, whose reporters Ayman Mohyeldin
Ayman Mohyeldin
Ayman Mohyeldin is an Arab-American journalist based in Los Angeles for NBC. Previously he worked for Al Jazeera and CNN, Ayman was one of the first western journalists allowed to enter and report on the handing over and trial of the deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Interim...
and Sherine Tadros
Sherine Tadros
Sherine Tadros is an Arab-British journalist based in the Middle East. She is a correspondent for Al Jazeera English and based in Doha, Qatar....
were already inside Gaza when the conflict began, is the only international broadcaster with a journalist reporting from inside Gaza. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
has a local producer Rushdi Abu Alouf
Rushdi Abu Alouf
-Biography:For more than five years, Rushdi Abu Alouf has worked for the BBC, on the BBC Arabic Service. Along with Hamada Abu Qammar, he was trained by Alan Johnston and now works for the BBC in their Gaza City office. During the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, when Israel banned foreign...
within Gaza.
The New York Times reported on January 10 that "Israel has also managed to block cellphone bandwidth, so very few amateur cellphone photographs are getting out of Gaza."
On January 18, journalists entered Gaza via the Erez crossing after a ceasefire was declared.
Hamas officials stopped the BBC from filming at one site, possibly because there was a military target nearby.
Hits by IDF
Media facilities in Gaza, both foreign and domestic, have come under Israeli fire since the military campaign began. On December 29, the IDFIsrael Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
destroyed the facilities and headquarters of Al-Aqsa TV
Al-Aqsa TV
Al-Aqsa TV is the official Hamas-run television channel. Its programming includes news talk, children's shows , and religiously inspired entertainment...
(though broadcasts continue from elsewhere), and on January 5, the IDF bombed the offices of the Hamas-affiliated Al-Risala newsweekly. On January 9, the IDF hit the Johara tower of Gaza City, which houses more than 20 international news organizations, including Turkish, French, and Iranian outlets. Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
publish video tape of Gaza reporter confirming Hamas fired rockets near TV offices. Gaza reporter Hanan Al-Masri from Johara tower on Al-Arabiya: "A Grad rocket from here? It's here. Listen, it's here, below the building...". Al-Jazeera reported that at least one journalist was injured in the attack and Press TV
Press TV
Press TV is a 24-hour English language global news network owned by the Iranian government. Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran, with bureaux in Beirut , Damascus , London , Seoul and Washington DC ....
reported that satellite transmission equipment was damaged. An IDF Spokesperson's Unit
IDF Spokesperson's Unit
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit is the unit in the IDF Operations Directorate, responsible for information policy and media relations. The unit is led by the IDF Spokesperson, a brigadier general and member of the General Staff, and by the Deputy Spokesperson, a colonel. The current Spokesperson is...
said the building had not been targeted, though it may have sustained collateral damage
Collateral damage
Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
.
Media restrictions
Two Arab journalists from East JerusalemEast Jerusalem
East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...
working for an Iranian TV station were arrested by Israeli authorities on January 12, and charged with violating IDF censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
protocols for allegedly reporting on the IDF ground offensive into Gaza hours before they were given permission. The journalists denied the charges, maintaining that they merely reported what was being said in the international media. One Italian journalist, after obtaining clearance from the IDF to travel to Netzarim
Netzarim (settlement)
Netzarim was formerly an Israeli settlement established in Gaza in 1972. It began as a secular Nahal outpost of the Hashomer Hatzair movement; in 1984 it became an orthodox kibbutz. A few years later, the residents decided to change from a kibbutz to a village...
, was fired on at an Israeli checkpoint even after renewed telephonic contact with the military authorities about the incident led to assurances he could proceed safely.
Government Press Office chief Daniel Seaman on January 25 denied that Israeli government policy banned foreign reporters from Gaza from 8 November 2008 through 21 January 2009, and denigrated the media as "crybabies...unwilling to make effort" to get to Gaza, and asserted that all but 3 percent act as "a figleaf for Hamas". The Foreign Press Association had petitioned Israel's High Court to get unfettered access to the Gaza strip. Press restriction appears to have been part of the propaganda campaign of Operation Cast Lead
Nachman Shai, a former Israeli army spokesman, claimed that Israel's tight regulation of the media was a reaction to "confusing" repoting during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War #Other uses|Tammūz]]) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War , was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. The principal parties were Hezbollah...
. The Foreign Press Association of Israel released a statement saying, “The unprecedented denial of access to Gaza for the world’s media amounts to a severe violation of press freedom and puts the state of Israel in the company of a handful of regimes around the world which regularly keep journalists from doing their jobs.”
Media campaigns
HaaretzHaaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
reported that Israeli Foreign Minister
Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel
The Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The position is one of the most important in the Israeli cabinet after Prime Minister and Defense Minister...
Tzipi Livni
Tzipi Livni
Tzipporah Malkah "Tzipi" Livni is an Israeli lawyer and politician. She is the current Israeli Opposition Leader and leader of Kadima, the largest party in the Knesset. Raised an ardent nationalist, Livni has become one of her nation's leading voices for the two-state solution. In Israel she has...
"instructed senior ministry officials to open an aggressive and diplomatic international public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
campaign in order to gain support for Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip." Israeli officials at embassies and consulates worldwide have mounted campaigns in local media, and to that end have recruited people who speak the native language. Israel has also opened an international media centre in Sderot
Sderot
Sderot is a western Negev city in the Southern District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 20,700. The city has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip...
. Deputy Israel's consulate in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
began holding online press conferences on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, a microblogging
Microblogging
Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...
website.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Majallie Whbee has criticised some of the international media for not showing the Israeli perspective, saying that some outlets "have often failed to report on the pervasive Kassam
Qassam rocket
The Qassam rocket is a simple steel artillery rocket developed and deployed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. Three models have been produced and used between 2001 and 2011....
attacks that preceded the [current] violence", according to the Jerusalem Post.
There has been a YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel opened by IDF Spokesperson's Unit
IDF Spokesperson's Unit
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit is the unit in the IDF Operations Directorate, responsible for information policy and media relations. The unit is led by the IDF Spokesperson, a brigadier general and member of the General Staff, and by the Deputy Spokesperson, a colonel. The current Spokesperson is...
, with many combat videos and a narrative video log. The videos are intended to bolster Israel's positions on contentious issues. The accuracy of one of the videos has been disputed B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
and Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
who claimed that a purported Israeli strike on militants, in fact, killed several civilians. Hamas has also launched a Youtube-like video site broadcasting criticism of Fatah and videos of Hamas attacks and Israeli casualty numbers.
Israeli media
Israel's media has been criticized for practicing alleged self-censorship and muzzling dissent with coverage on the conflict that has been described as overtly patriotic and biased against Hamas. Eight Israeli human rights groups wrote a letter to newspaper editors, broadcasters and websites claiming, "opinions criticising the decision to launch the offensive or the army's conduct during the war are hardly heard." Critics pointed to newspaper headlines describing the surprise airstrikes against Gaza, including the Yedioth AhronothYedioth Ahronoth
Yedioth Ahronoth is a daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv, Israel. Since the 1970s, it has been the most widely circulated paper in Israel. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Yedioth Ahronoth retained the title of most widely read newspaper in Israel...
headline "Better Late Than Never" and the Maariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
headline "Fighting Back." Keshev, an Israeli media watchdog group, said Israeli television channels dispatched their anchors to towns hit by Hamas rockets, but provided little attention to reports of the devastation inside Gaza. As an example, Yizhar Be'er, head of Keshev, cited the relatively little Israeli coverage afforded to the deaths of almost 50 people on January 6 airstrikes on three United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
schools, which Israeli forces mistakenly believed were used as militant hide-outs. Regarding the overall coverage, Be'er said:
A Channel 10 senior editor acknowledged a large amount of patriotism in coverage of the conflict, but attributed it largely to Israel's refusal to allow journalists into Hamas and the army's restrictions over information coming from the battlefield. He told the Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
, "There are no means to develop criticism because we receive very few details from the army on the fighting inside Gaza... When there is no criticism there is more room for patriotism."
United Kingdom
The BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
received accusations of bias, both for and against Israel, during the conflict, but received particularly intense criticism for its decision not to broadcast a television appeal by aid agencies for victims of the airstrikes against Gaza. BBC officials said the decision stemmed from a policy of maintaining impartiality in the dispute. But many parties criticized the decision, including both Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
archbishops, British government ministers
Minister of the Crown
Minister of the Crown is the formal constitutional term used in the Commonwealth realms to describe a minister to the reigning sovereign. The term indicates that the minister serves at His/Her Majesty's pleasure, and advises the monarch, or viceroy, on how to exercise the Crown prerogatives...
and even some BBC employees. BBC officials described the criticism as unprecedented, including more than 11,000 complaints in a three-day span. Some protests have accused the company of giving in to pressure from Israel or Jewish groups, while others attribute it to a fear of controversy in light of prior embarrassments over Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
coverage; the BBC has strongly denied both claims.
A study by Arab Media Watch
Arab Media Watch
Arab Media Watch is a London-based media watchdog organization with the stated aim of working toward objective British media coverage of the Arab world. Founded in 2000, by Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi, Arab Media Watch is the "only organization of its kind in the UK". The organization monitors...
, an London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
-based watchdog striving for objective coverage of Arab issues in the British media, states the BBC decision was only one example of a pro-Israel bias in the British press. According to the study, when the British press represents one party as retaliating, the party is Israel more than three-quarters of the time; in the tabloid press, Israel is portrayed as the relatiating party 100 percent of the time. Violent actions by Israel were portrayed as "retaliations" three times more often than they were portrayed as "provocations." An Arab Media Watch advisor said "inevitably, these trends in reporting leave Palestinian violence largely unexplained, causing it to appear as unwarranted 'aggression.'"
New York Times
Taghreed El-KhodaryTaghreed El-Khodary
Taghreed El-Khodary is a Palestinian journalist who is currently a visiting scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment, where her research focuses on the future of Gaza. She is also a 2010 Heinrich Boell Fellow....
, a correspondent for New York Times, was among the few correspondents reporting from Gaza during the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
The Gaza War, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world, was a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and hundreds of rocket attacks on south of Israel which...
after Israel prevented correspondents from crossing the Gaza-Israel border. El-Khodary describes herself as among the "very few objective reporters" covering the conflict. She was praised for the "in-depth, balanced coverage" of the conflict.
El-Khodary, who covered the conflict from a position near the Al-Shifa Hospital
Al-Shifa Hospital
Al-Shifa Hospital is the largest medical complex and central hospital of Gaza, located in the district of North Rimal. The current director of the hospital is Khaled Hassan.-History:...
, was criticized for failing to cover Hamas' use of homes, mosques, hospitals and schools for weapons storage, not reporting on Hamas' use of human shields, not reporting on Hamas' use of children as to assist soldiers, not reporting on Hamas' wartime execution of accused "collaborators," and not reporting on the location of the Hamas leadership in a bunker beneath the Shifa Hospital. The Times was accused of failing to balance reports by a journalist whose "personal perspective" placed blame for the conflict on Israel alone. As El-Khodary put it in a CNN interview, "The real issue" in the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict is "The Israeli military occupation." And of publishing a distorted picture of, as El-Khodary expressed it, a situation in which "ordinary people are squeezed between suicidal fighters and a military behemoth," and of covering civilian casualties in Gaza "to the virtual exclusion of any other issues."
Hacktivism
The conflict also engendered considerable propagandaPropaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, hacktivism
Hacktivism
Hacktivism is the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends. The term was first coined in 1994 by a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective named Omega...
and cyber warfare (both on the part of the combatants and polities directly involved and of independent, private parties) which resulted in numerous website defacements, denial-of-service attacks and domain name and account hijackings. An opt-in anti-Hamas botnet
Botnet
A botnet is a collection of compromised computers connected to the Internet. Termed "bots," they are generally used for malicious purposes. When a computer becomes compromised, it becomes a part of a botnet...
created by Israeli students appeared, and new media diplomacy appeared on social networking sites such as Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and Second Life
Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
, and on new media such as Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
.