Just Journalism Update
THIS WEEK: How the media use the terms ‘capture' and ‘kidnap' in various contexts.
ALSO: Read how a Daily Mail piece critical of Lauren Booth still repeats errors about the situation in Gaza and how the BBC News Website presents an imbalanced perspective in its “In Pictures” section.
“CAPTURE” OR “KIDNAP”: ARE THE MEDIA BEING CONSISTENT?
• Comments by former Mossad agent and pensioner affairs minister, Rafi Eitan, to German weekly magazine, Der Spiegel, caused controversy on Monday 8 September, when he said that “It could very well be that a leader such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suddenly finds himself before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.” When asked whether kidnapping was an acceptable option in terms of how he should be brought, Eitan replied that “any way to bring him for trial in The Hague is a possibility.”
• The story was covered in the Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and in two articles on the BBC News website, and raises an interesting question about the language applied by different media outlets to kidnap/capture situations involving Israel .
• Much of the UK media has in the past described Israeli soldiers taken from Israeli soil by Hizbollah and Hamas as “captured”, rather than “kidnapped”, including The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the BBC News website.
• Some quarters argue that journalists are not obligated to describe military personnel as “kidnapped” and that this term is better reserved for incidents involving civilians.
• However, when referring back to Eitan's involvement in bringing Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from Argentina to Israel for trial in 1960, the BBC News website articles, “ Israel ‘could kidnap Ahmadinejad' ” and “ Iran raps Israel ‘kidnap threat' ” describe Eichmann's “abduction” and “kidnap”, not ‘capture'.
• “Israeli call to kidnap Iran leader”, published in the Daily Mail on Wednesday 10 September, also applies “abduction” to Eichmann.
• In contrast, Tim Butcher of The Daily Telegraph describes Eichmann's apprehension by Israel by using “capture” and “seized”, rather than ‘kidnap' or ‘abducted'.
LAUREN BOOTH CONTINUED...
• Last week's JJ Update examined the distortions in the UK media's coverage of Lauren Booth , sister-in-law of Tony Blair, being “trapped” in Gaza after participating in the ‘Free Gaza' boat trip.
• However, on Friday 5 September, a different perspective was brought by Jan Moir of the Daily Mail in a piece entitled, “I'm so fed up with Lauren's bleating”. The piece described Lauren Booth as a “hapless, self-styled human rights campaigner,” and concluded that, “the whole adventure is less about highlighting the difficulties faced by Palestinians and more about embarrassing Tony Blair.”
• Despite the more critical examination of Lauren Booth's motivations, the article still contained the same key omission as previous reports on the issue. Moir failed to note the role that Egypt has played in “trapping” Lauren Booth in Gaza by denying her entry, simply stating that she was, “refused permission to leave by the Israeli authorities manning the perimeter fence.”
• This demonstrates how the narrative of the story has become over-simplified, to the extent that the sole emphasis is placed on Israel's role. Even an article critical of Ms Booth nevertheless repeats the same distortion.
BBC NEWS WEBSITE – IN PICTURES
• The BBC News Website section ‘In Pictures' uses multiple photographs with accompanying captions to portray items or events of interest. Last week it featured a series of photographs on “ Ramadan prayers at al-Aqsa mosque,” looking at the journey a Palestinian man makes from the West Bank to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
• The piece gives a one-sided perspective of the journey. From the very first picture, the piece highlights that “Ramadan is one of the few times Israel allows him to travel the one-hour journey to Jerusalem”, while the next few sections describe the restrictions on who is allowed to make the journey.
• It is only in the 6th section of the item that any information is provided to balance and contextualise the security restrictions, when it is stated that “Israel says the age restrictions and the checkpoint procedures are necessary to stop attacks on its citizens.”
• This is the only paragraph in a feature that overwhelmingly portrays Israel's security measures as barbaric and animalistic, with very little context. After stating that those travelling through Bethlehem “walk up a caged metal walkway, before passing through a series of turnstiles and security checks”, the Palestinian describes the experience as making him feel “like an animal.”
• Furthermore, the phrase ‘like an animal' is used as the header for that section, which has as its photograph a shot of the Palestinian from behind the ‘bars' of the walkway, as if he were indeed inside a cage.
BREACHES OF JOURNALISTIC PRINCIPLES
• The villagers hemmed in, The Economist, September 6, 2008- DISTORTION OF INFORMATION
• It's never good to swap people for bodies, The Independent, By Robert Fisk, September 6, 2008- DISTORTION OF INFORMATION
• I'm so fed up with Lauren's bleating, The Daily Mail, September 3, 2008-DISTORTION OF INFORMATION
• Victims or Villains?, The Guardian, September 11, 2008- FACTUAL ERROR
STORIES OF INTEREST
Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and…Israel?
Somewhat incongruously, or so it might at first glance appear, The New Statesman decided to accompany a piece about the inherent conflict between musical freedom and authoritarian governments with a picture of The Beatles, who, as the caption informs us, were ‘banned from performing in Israel'. The author uses this incident as a springboard to discuss the Israeli anthem and the role of music in a fledgling society.
Michael Barenboim: words, whiskey and Wagner.
Continuing on the musical theme, The Independent on Sunday ran a short ‘I believe' piece with Michael Barenboim, violinist for the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and son of Daniel Barenboim
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