Issue No.590
Opinion
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13 - 19 June 2002 Issue No.590 Opinion |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Media monstrosity
The Western media's treatment of the war in Afghanistan and Israel's war against the Palestinians have marked similarities -- the coverage of both has been characterised by generalisations that have often deliberately misled the viewer as to the reality of events.This was not the case with the Vietnam War, the second Gulf War or even the war in Somalia. On each of these occasions the Western media provided speedy, efficient and factual communication. Yet in Afghanistan the media has obscured civilian casualties (according to the web site of a New Hampshire University professor there were 3,767 in the period from 7 November to 10 December 2001), concentrating instead on the appointment of Hamid Karzai as president of the newly instituted state. The American media have also complied with instructions to place a blanket ban on the broadcast of speeches by Bin Laden, on the pretext that they might contain coded messages. And at least one radio anchor has been prevented from hosting commentators and analysts who might criticise Washington's policies.
The American media have adopted an equally biased position on the Arab- Israeli conflict. Israeli deaths and injuries are widely reported while the brutal aggression directed at Palestinians is virtually ignored. Palestinian resistance is reported as terrorism, not a struggle against occupation, a word barely mentioned. The history of the conflict might as well not exist.
So much for objectivity.
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