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Volume 1, Issue 4
May,
2003
In this Newsletter:
Integrity of the Press
Freedom and integrity of the press are luxuries taken for
granted in the Western world, but are sometimes rare commodities
in the Middle East.
The recent war in Iraq gave an insight into the way one Middle
Eastern regime practiced extensive censorship and rarely, if
ever, could be trusted to accurately tell the world, or their
own people, what was happening. The Prism Group volunteers
surveyed the situation in surrounding countries, and were
dismayed to confirm that many of the countries of the Middle
East control the media and information it makes available.
Revelations by CNN executive Eason Jordan that his news group
deliberately did not report human rights violations in order to
maintain a presence in and access to Hussein’s Iraq raise
questions about the integrity of reporting by internationally
respected news carriers. (The
News We Kept to Ourselves.)
Media watchdog groups, such as
BBC Watch, claim that
detailed studies of the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict reveal that the impartiality of even the most respected
of news sources is at best suspect.
There is ample evidence to suggest that domestic journalists are
hampered in their freedom and ability to report the truth
wherever governments are autocratic. Revelations by journalists
operating in the Palestinian territories have provided
occasional suspicions that much of what is reported is colored
and controlled by the local politicians and militias.
For example, questions have been raised about journalistic
standards, which led the famous photograph of Mohamed al-Dura (a
12-year-old boy allegedly killed by Israeli soldiers at the
beginning of the latest outbreak of violence) as reported by the
media in Gaza, to be adopted by the international press and Arab
world as a symbol and proof of Israeli aggression against
innocent civilians. Several studies have contended that the
whole event may have been staged – or that the boy was, in fact,
killed by a Palestinian bullet. James Fallows presents the
evidence in his recent article
Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura.
Read the results of our volunteers’ research in the latest
Prism
Group fact sheet on our website at
www.theprismgroup,org.
The Roadmap
A significant element of the
Roadmap peace plan for solving the Israeli-Palestinian
dispute is its emphasis on action rather than words. The
international Quartet of the US, UN, EU and Russia which
prepared the plan apparently has learned a lesson from previous
attempts at internationally brokered agreements. In its own
words, the roadmap is ‘performance-based and goal-driven.’ The
message is that we should be much less concerned about what the
parties are saying, and much more focused on what they
are doing.
A key requirement is an immediate cessation of terrorism and
specifically incitement. The PLO Negotiations Affairs
Department, in the name of the Palestinian Authority, has
accepted the roadmap, but says that this requirement cannot be
implemented until the term ‘incitement’ is defined.
Nevertheless, the Palestinian Authority condemned the latest
terror attacks against Israelis.
The Israelis have moved to prevent official sources speaking
against the Palestinian Authority. For example, criticism of
new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, including
quotations of statements he made in March 2003 supporting
continued armed struggle against Israelis, were removed from the
Israeli
army’s website. This website has also discontinued its
practice of translating and publishing anti-Israel incitement by
the various Palestinian security arms and groups.
The effects of incitement on children are sadly reflected in a
recent survey reported by
Islam
On-line.net late last month.
Dr. Samir Kutha of the Gaza Program for Psychotherapy showed
1,000 children a picture of a Palestinian girl ‘Fatima’ gazing
at the palm of her hand, and asked questions about what they
saw. When asked how Fatima’s and her society’s problems could
be solved, 68% answered: “by suicide bombings.” 25% of the
children thought that the girl in the photograph was actually
contemplating carrying out a suicide attack. This
frightening statistic shows that the Palestinian society has
successfully created an environment where, without radical
changes to the fabric of the society and its education
mechanisms, the hope for peace in the Middle East may be lost
for at least another generation.
Action to cease incitement throughout Palestinian society and
educating the coming generation to peace are critical to the
chances for peace in this turbulent area of the Middle East. The
Prism Group urges you, at every opportunity, to emphasize this
issue. Refer to our
fact sheet for information, and write to your local
newspapers, political and church leaders and human rights
organizations. Write directly to Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas, care of
pnaweb@gov.ps.
The Prism Group Website
The Prism Group’s website is updated regularly to focus on new
points of interest. If you haven’t had a chance to see our site
recently, why not take a moment now and surf to:
www.theprismgroup.org.
We also hope that you will alert others to the important issues
discussed on our site. Download the fact sheets and send them to
friends and colleagues. Write us at
info@theprismgroup.org
with other ideas that you think should be explored and exposed.
Share this newsletter with your friends, and encourage them to
subscribe by sending an email to
newsletter@theprismgroup.org.
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