lennart
03-04-04, 17:47
Yet there is little doubt that the Israeli government viewed the boy's arrest as of considerable propaganda value.
Israeli embassies urged newspapers across the globe to run the story as part of a campaign by the government to highlight the use of children as potential suicide bombers.
A week earlier, when a 12-year-old boy, Abdullah Quran, was stopped while unwittingly carrying explosives at an army checkpoint, Israeli embassies called news editors to insist they cover the story and warn that failure to do so would be viewed as bias against Israel.
When several news organisations failed to report it, an Israeli newspaper called for their correspondents to be expelled, including Sky's Emma Hurd and Stephen Farrell of the Times.
The government emailed the article around the world and reproduced it on official websites.
Gideon Meir, the foreign ministry's chief spokesman, said the criticism was legitimate. "Sky News did not cover the Abdullah Quran story but the next day, when the Israeli army targeted an Islamic Jihad terrorist with a missile, immediately Sky was on the air with seven or eight minutes of coverage," he said. "They did not cover the first story because it does not fit into the agenda the editors have."
Last month the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, pulled out of an interview on Sky's Sunday with Adam Boulton after the show refused to cancel an appearance by the Palestinian representative in London.
CNN sources say the network has bowed to considerable pressure on its editors. Israeli officials boast that they now have only to call a number at the network's headquarters in Atlanta to pull any story they do not like.
The network's former Middle East correspondent, Jerrold Kessel, who was widely respected for his informed and nuanced reporting, said that while doubtlessly there was pressure on his editors to get him to modify his coverage, he regarded it as irrelevant.
"The less notice one takes of pressure, the less pressure one invites on oneself," he said. "If you get into a mind where the pressure is a factor, you get into the mind of worrying about what the effect of the pressure is going to be."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1183300,00.html
Israeli embassies urged newspapers across the globe to run the story as part of a campaign by the government to highlight the use of children as potential suicide bombers.
A week earlier, when a 12-year-old boy, Abdullah Quran, was stopped while unwittingly carrying explosives at an army checkpoint, Israeli embassies called news editors to insist they cover the story and warn that failure to do so would be viewed as bias against Israel.
When several news organisations failed to report it, an Israeli newspaper called for their correspondents to be expelled, including Sky's Emma Hurd and Stephen Farrell of the Times.
The government emailed the article around the world and reproduced it on official websites.
Gideon Meir, the foreign ministry's chief spokesman, said the criticism was legitimate. "Sky News did not cover the Abdullah Quran story but the next day, when the Israeli army targeted an Islamic Jihad terrorist with a missile, immediately Sky was on the air with seven or eight minutes of coverage," he said. "They did not cover the first story because it does not fit into the agenda the editors have."
Last month the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, pulled out of an interview on Sky's Sunday with Adam Boulton after the show refused to cancel an appearance by the Palestinian representative in London.
CNN sources say the network has bowed to considerable pressure on its editors. Israeli officials boast that they now have only to call a number at the network's headquarters in Atlanta to pull any story they do not like.
The network's former Middle East correspondent, Jerrold Kessel, who was widely respected for his informed and nuanced reporting, said that while doubtlessly there was pressure on his editors to get him to modify his coverage, he regarded it as irrelevant.
"The less notice one takes of pressure, the less pressure one invites on oneself," he said. "If you get into a mind where the pressure is a factor, you get into the mind of worrying about what the effect of the pressure is going to be."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1183300,00.html