Conventional ideas of balance are all but redundant in modern conflict

Charlie Beckett gives a good synopsis of Polis' debate this week on Managing the News in Conflict: Covering Gaza under the Media Ban.

Reporting war is getting more dangerous, difficult and complicated but working with citizen journalists is one way of getting around the censorship, lack of resources and danger.

The debate featured Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East Editor, Alan Fisher and Sherrine Tadros, both Al Jazeera English, and Louise Turner, Unseen Gaza Dispatches Director/Producer.

What was interesting says Beckett

was the consensus that conventional ideas of balance are all but redundant in modern conflict where so often the sides are disproportionate.

and

There was also a thoughtful debate around whether TV channels serving western audiences should show as much gore as Arab broadcasters routinely do. Bowen thought that the BBC could show more but as soon as you go too far it loses its impact. And both Fisher and Tadros agreed that to get the most impact, you don’t have to resort to explicit horror. Louise Turner watched hours of rushes of stomach-churning imagery in the making of her documentary about Gaza and she said that the effect was to numb not to inform.

Al Jazeera critical of media coverage of Gaza

Journalism.co.uk hosted an online interview with Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin at the end of last week and was rather critical of the Western Media's coverage of the conflict in Palestine.

"The western media has failed tremendously in covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict accurately and contextually.

adding that

"They would not tolerate what has continued for decades and now what is happening in Gaza. I am extremely frustrated by how Gaza and the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict is portrayed, in the western world particularly,"

Sherine Tadros went further and said that

"I think it comes down to finance and editorial judgement," Tadros said. "Unless there is a military operation - i.e a sexy picture - editors won't spend on deploying teams to cover humanitarian tragedies.

Media freedom seriously curtailed in Gaza according to Reporters without Borders

Reporters without borders have just published its initial analysis of press freedoms during the recent conflict in Gaza.

According to the report, six journalists ho were killed, two of them while doing their job. Around 15 were wounded. And at least three buildings housing media were hit by Israeli fire.

Both sides in the conflict come in for criticism.For Hamas

Contrary to what its leaders say, journalists are not free to criticise the Islamist movement, to communicate the stance of other factions or simply to set forth divergent opinions.

whilst on the Israeli side

he sealing off of the Gaza Strip, which was the full responsibility of the Israeli authorities, is unacceptable and disturbing. Beyond this conflict, control of news in time of war has become a military objective throughout the world.

Will Self's opinion on the BBC Gaza appeal crisis

Will Self has an interesting opinion on the BBC/Gaza controvery over at First Post this morning.

It is not the BBC that should be getting the flak from the demonstrators but Israel.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the corporation he says that

the response of a whole phalanx of luvvies and legs has been laughable adding that

How they're appalled at the pusillanimous BBC in the face of this 'humanitarian' disaster - yet few of them spoke out loud and clear against the actions of Israel that caused it, nor, by extension, against the supine British government whose consistent failure to roundly condemn Israel is far more important than a charity advert.

Gaza situation a mess according to a BBC news person

With Sky news now also deciding not to carry the DEC appeal for the citizens of Gaza,Charlie Beckett,director at POLIS reminds us that the BBC does have a precedent for this which appears to have been forgotten

Back in August 2006 it turned down a DEC appeal for Lebanon for the same reason - impartiality. It was specifically concerned that the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah might break down.

So as Charlie points out.

Did the DEC not remember the Lebanon precedent?Did BBC News warn that their impartiality was going to be questioned? Were they consulted? If the Appeal would bring criticism, was it really thought that it would be so strong and so credible that it should sway BBC policy? Would it not have appeared more confident and consistent to allow the appeal, take some flak and move on? In practice has this not made the BBC look much worse?

As he concludes

The BBC is now suffering from self-inflicted collatoral damage. One very senior BBC News person described the BBC Gaza Appeal decision to me as ‘a mess’.

Thompson sticks to his guns over Gaza

It seems that the BBC has shot itself in the foot over the controversy over the Gaza appeal.

Mark Thompson is still unrepentant though and uses the BBC''s editors blog to put his point of view over.

Hats off to him for standing by his principles.I personally question whether he is correct and fear that the BBC has been pushed into a corner over what it initially thought was an easy decision but now thrrough coverage has become a national issue.

Thompson reiterates the reasons behind his decision

1.

One reason was a concern about whether aid raised by the appeal could actually be delivered on the ground. You will understand that one of the factors we have to look at is the practicality of the aid, whic

h the public are being asked to fund, getting through.

but more importantly

2.

This is because Gaza remains a major ongoing news story, in which humanitarian issues - the suffering and distress of civilians and combatants on both sides of the conflict, the debate about who is responsible for causing it and what should be done about it - are both at the heart of the story and contentious. We have and will continue to cover the human side of the conflict in Gaza extensively across our news services where we can place all of the issues in context in an objective and balanced way. After looking at all of the circumstances, and in particular after seeking advice from senior leaders in BBC Journalism, we concluded that we could not broadcast a free-standing appeal

The Observer this morning believes that the corporation has got it wrong.In its editorial it says that

That the population of Gaza is experiencing a humanitarian crisis is a matter of fact, not political hypothesis

This debate will continue to rumble especailly now that ITV and channel 4 have taken the opposite view.

Some more comment on the reporting of Gaza

A couple of interesting posts about the media coverage of the Gaza conflict this morning.

Over at Charlie Beckett's Polis blog there is a guest appearance by Nina Bigalke who has been researching Al Jazeera's English channel for the last 18 months.

She points out the advantage that the channel has

The reason why the Israeli government’s ban was not effective in the case of AJE is strikingly simple. Their correspondents were around before the news broke. As coincidental as this may sound, it is symptomatic of a different approach to reporting where continuous presence takes precedence over momentary action.

and adds that

Those who are turning to Al Jazeera English for an entirely different kind of journalism may not find what they are looking for – but in its reporting on Gaza, the channel shows where its real potential for making a difference lies: in having a presence before news breaks in regions where other networks predominantly engage in situations of acute crisis. And in the political and cultural sensitivity on the part of the journalists that is growing out of this presence.

Whilst Reuters reports that

Israel has opened a hotline for tip-offs about uniformed officers or politicians suspected of spilling state secrets.

As the Israeli government continues its crackdown on reporting from the region it reports that

Soldiers have had cellphones confiscated to prevent them sending SMS messages about combat losses or troop deployments as they advance on Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas in Gaza.
Military censors, who avoid nosing around routine news coverage, now show their teeth. Two Israeli freelancers were arrested on suspicion they gave an Iranian TV station details about the Gaza sweep that was not cleared for publication.

Iranian paper critical of Hamas is shut down

An Iranian newspaper which has been critical of Hamas during the current actions in Gaza has been closed down according to a report on AFP

Kargozaran has been banned over a media offence and the case has been referred to the court," Mohammad Parvizi, who is in charge of domestic media at the culture ministry, told IRNA.
He said the ban was ordered over "a piece yesterday which justifies the Zionist regime's crimes against humanity in Gaza and portrays the Palestinian resistance as terrorists who cause the deaths of children and civilians by taking up position in kindergartens and hospitals."

Hat Tip Harry's Place