News Media
Press TV under attack
By Gilad Atzmon
Online Journal Guest Writer


Aug 4, 2010, 00:10

To tell the truth about Israeli barbarism is a breach of impartiality. The Guardian and the Jewish Chronicle reported yesterday that Ofcom, the UK broadcasting standards body, has ruled that Iranian-backed Press TV�s coverage of the Gaza flotilla incident breached guidelines on impartiality.

You ask yourself why?

Their coverage of the Flotilla wasn�t pro-Israeli enough.

The regulator said the station had not shown due impartiality during a broadcast on June 5 which dealt exclusively with the events surrounding the interception by Israeli commandos of the pro-Palestinian convoy off the coast of Gaza.

The Jewish Chronicle reports that during an episode of a current affairs show, Remembering Palestine, presenter Lauren Booth discussed the flotilla with studio guests and participants of the convoy. Ofcom said the show had started with �a pro-Palestinian song set to anti-Israeli/pro-Palestinian imagery.�

Ofcom is absolutely right, Booth should have thought about it, and played Hava Nagila along with the images of Israel executing nine peace activists in international waters. Such an act would bring to light the cheerful aspect in Israeli murderous zeal. It would also cement the cultural continuum between the IDF�s crimes and Jewish cultural heritage.

Watch the Israeli execution on the Mavi Marmara.

The watchdog said comments made by Ms Booth and her guests �could be interpreted as being highly critical of the actions of the Israeli government and its military forces.� The comments included: Lauren Booth saying, �Israeli commandos . . . committed a massacre of innocent civilians sailing aid ships to the besieged Gaza Strip.�

I am slightly puzzled here, what would Ofcom suggest calling a deliberate execution of civilians in the middle of the night? Is there a better word in English to describe the event?

Booth also said, �This was obviously a barbarous attack on civilians. One thing is certain: As Turkey buries its murdered citizens . . . the brave men and women on those ships, in one move, have shifted world opinion against Israeli apartheid.�

Obviously, Booth was very observant, just five days after the Israeli massacre she gathered that the world has changed. Now we all see Israel and its supporters for what they are. I guess that the video above shows clearly a deliberate murderous act. I think that Ofcom should visit Youtube; they can also wait for the results of the UN fact-finding mission into Israel�s slaughter on the Mavi Marmara. 

On a further note, I just wonder, if the British press is not allowed to tell the truth about Israel, who exactly is going to stop Israel from using its nuclear bombs? How should we protest against Israeli war crimes? Should we count on the Conservative Friends of Israel to do the job? Or even Kenneth Clark who, under Israeli Lobby pressure, moved quickly to block war crimes prosecutions in the UK so �the likes of Henry Kissinger, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak could slip a little easier� into the UK.

I would use this opportunity to say thanks to Press TV and Lauren Booth for being there. I am certain, that such publicity will bring many more viewers to the one and only broadcaster in the UK that tells the truth about Israeli crimes and the Israeli Lobby in Britain.