wfn.org | Religious communicators ponder Mideast news coverage

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #7149 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

06-May-2002
02166

Religious communicators ponder Mideast news coverage

Group issues "media code" for covering the Middle East

by Chris Herlinger
Religion News Service

NEW YORK - The question was as pointed as it was timely and at times proved as elusive as Middle East peace itself: Is balanced reporting from the Middle East possible?

A recent seminar in New York City examined that question from a host of positions - those of journalists, media critics, Israelis, Palestinians - and there was not easy agreement or even affirmation that it is possible.

Journalists defended their craft but acknowledged imperfections; critics cited bias; a sense of shared history and even common terms proved elusive - an "occupied" territory to a Palestinian is "disputed" land to an Israeli. European coverage of the Middle East was praised by some as being "more fair" than U.S. coverage, but was criticized by others as "biased" against Israel.

Akiba Cohen, who teaches communication at Tel Aviv University, said bias is nearly unavoidable, given that journalists are no different than other humans - everything is filtered through life experience. Add to that a severe and pitched conflict, he said, and you have the makings for coverage that will prove deeply unsatisfying to someone.

"No matter what you write, you'll be criticized," Michael Arnold, managing editor of the New York-based Jewish Telegraphic Agency, said during the first day of a two?day seminar, "Megaphones and Muffled Voices: What Constitutes Full and Fair Media Coverage of Israeli-Palestinian Issues?"

The event was sponsored by the North American and international arms of the World Association for Christian Communication, which is based in London, and the Communication Commission of the National Council of Churches.

One of the practical results of the seminar, held April 17-18 at the Church Center for the United Nations, was to draw up a 12-point "Code of Fair Practices" that seminar sponsors hope will find its way into newsrooms and improve coverage by emphasizing the need for digging beyond the surface of the story, to get as wide a range of viewpoints as possible and to avoid loaded terms such as "Islamic bombers."

In its preface, the code acknowledged the difficulty of reporting as "the first draft of history."

"By definition, this draft is not always complete, often presenting facts without adequate context, filing reports in a hurry and sending pictures that emphasize immediate action and consequences. Still, there is more to informing the public than merely relaying raw data quickly."

Indeed, as John Zakarian, editorial page editor of the Hartford (Conn.) Courant and chief drafter of the code of practices, said of U.S. coverage: "The more raw information we have, the more confused we become." An almost over-abundance of information has led to an almost "mental implosion" on the part of Americans, he argued. "Oceans of words and images," he said, "don't guarantee clarity."

What does? Context. But whose context? That was a crucial question and not one easily agreed upon.

Ethan Bronner of the editorial board of the New York Times and a former correspondent in the region said it was crucial for reporters "to understand the narrative from the inside," but acknowledged that Israelis and Palestinians cannot even agree on a date for when "the narrative" begins.

Benny Avni of Kol Israel Radio said all sides will argue that the media are "biased toward the other side" and will argue the need for "more fairness."

For his part, Avni said he thought it was a mistake to portray Israel and the Palestinian Authority as equals in a host of ways: politically, economically, militarily; on the issue of press freedom, he said, Israel's press is far freer and more critical of the Israeli government and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon than the Palestinian press is of Yasser Arafat.

Arnold, of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, made a similar argument, and said the facts of the current crisis were "counterintuitive" to what is the norm: he said the weaker party - the Palestinians - was initiating attacks against the stronger force - Israel - and said, if anything, Israel has acted "with a fair amount of restraint."

Arnold said he believed American journalists were liberal politically and had taken the view that the Palestinians were the "underdogs," resulting in a perceptible pro-Palestinian bias."

Not so, said Ahmed Bouzid, president of Palestinian Media Watch, who criticized Israeli policy but also passionately lambasted the U.S. media less for biased coverage than for what he called "journalistic mediocrity."

"I don't tell them they are biased or bad people - I tell them they are not doing their jobs correctly," he said, citing what he called a long tradition of U.S. journalists deferring to the Israeli viewpoint and underplaying Palestinian suffering.

Sarah Eltantawi of the Muslim Public Affairs Council took up that theme, saying it was irresponsible for journalists to "parrot" what she called the line of the Israeli military "and call it a day."

Marda Dunsky, who has covered the Middle East and teaches at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, concurred with Bouzid and said there was an urgent need to examine what was not covered in the U.S. media, including what Dunsky called "the daily details of Palestinian life."

"The U.S. public," she argued, "lacks a complete picture."

Media Code for Covering the Mideast

Introduction: The primary mission of journalists is to offer readers, viewers and listeners a rough first draft of history as it is being made. By definition, this draft is not always complete, often presenting facts without adequate context, filing reports in a hurry and sending pictures that emphasize immediate action and consequences. Still, there is more to informing the public than merely relaying raw data quickly.

To prepare coherent accounts of events, reporters and editors routinely filter and condense the vast amount of available information into a coherent package. They attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Information gatherers and gatekeepers fulfill their responsibilities best when they observe the following guidelines:
    
1.  The best of journalists do not only report what they see, hear or are told by official sources. They dig beneath the surface. They strive to get the other side or sides of the story and rely on diverse sources.
	
2.  Balance of coverage is not achieved only in providing equal space or time to each side. There is no balance when an articulate, moderate and charismatic person is asked to represent one side and an uncompromising, militant, fiery and inarticulate ideologist is offered as a representative of the other side.
	    
3.  Headlines should reflect the content of the story.  Photographs should give a fair and accurate image of an event and not exaggerate an incident simply because the photograph is exceptionally dramatic. 
	    
4.  As much as possible, journalists should understand the language, the history and the culture of the people they cover. They should not totally rely on interpreters provided by particular causes or governments.

5.  Covering such a sensitive, nuance-ridden subject as the Arab-Israeli conflict, journalists should be careful in using such loaded words and cliches as "terrorists," "gunmen," "Islamic bombers" and "fatalistic" Muslims.
	    
6.  In presenting stories, there should be a clear distinction between news reports and expressions of opinion. News should be free of bias. Columnists should stake their positions by verifiable facts rather than secondary sources or reports. Op-Ed articles by advocacy groups should be clearly labeled as such.
	    
7.  As a marketplace for ideas, the news media, particularly newspapers, magazines and periodicals, have a responsibility to publish all sides of controversial issues by inviting "Op-Ed" contributions and letters to the editor.
	    
8.  Journalists should have the courage of well-founded convictions and a healthy sense of fair play. They should never write anything that goes against their conscience.
	    
9.  Although pledges of confidentiality should be honored, they should be made sparingly - and only when the journalist deems it to serve the public's need for information.

10.  Journalists are more self-critical about their work than their readers or viewers frequently give them credit. Journalists should also encourage thoughtful public input about their work.

11.	Journalists should expect access from governments at all levels, especially from those that profess to honor democracy. So-called closed military zones and blanket orders prohibiting coverage in combat zones ill serve democracy.
	
12.	Editorial criticism of a government's policy should not be equated as criticism or derision of an entire nation or class of people.
------------------------------------------
Send your response to this article to pcusa.news@pcusa.org

------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send an 'unsubscribe' request to

pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org