Return of the Mehikon, or: Blue-and-White TV

It’s been quite a long time now that Israeli media personnel are not allowed into the Gaza Strip (by Israeli authorities). But it served them well – they weren’t really interested in this part of the equation in the first place. The very few reporters who had found their way in, were detained and interrogated once they went back to Israel. While the Foreign Press Association is consistently demanding the Israeli authorities let foreign media into Gaza for more than a month now, the Israeli media prefer to report on the motions filed by the FPA, rather than stand for their own right for balanced reporting.

The coverage of the events inside the war zone by the three Israeli TV channels is amounted to a few excerpts of foreign media outlets stationed in Gaza, and mostly the almost-permanent rooftops cameras of Ramattan news agency showing some smoke and a number of explosions a day from a (rather) safe distance. The ground operation is virtually the first time the two rivals confront each other. And yet, as far as the Israeli media is concerned, the other side simply has no face.

Additionally, a fine amount of the video materials of the IDF side are currently those fed by the IDF spokesperson unit. It took the military censorship about a couple of days to get a grip of things, following the conclusions [H] from the 2006 war, and then they issued a detailed list of restrictions and instructions [H] for the media – which is strictly followed. And, reporters and anchors are also strict on announcing that each report has been approved by the censorship – something to be proud of… (well, actually, there are very few who, in more peaceful times, contest the legitimacy of a practically civilian radio operated by the army).

So, now comes the well-known dilemma of the media’s role in society. I do believe that if the media is meant to serve the people, its reports must not jeopardize their lives when circulating information that is of not high-importance but could be used by perpetrators. That’s generally the case about reporting the exact location of rockets hits – an issue that was brought up during the 2006 war. However, the almost total reliance and strict loyalty to the army spokesperson is somehow disturbing. During the 1982 war in Lebanon one Israeli columnist coined the consensus term “Silence, shooting!”. But let’s put it clearly, media personnel must not break the state laws. However, even if these media currently enjoy the public’s support when expressing this amount of solidarity and boosting the Israeli morale (like the Likud’s Gilad Erdan believes [H] it should do), not showing the slightest interest what-so-ever in anything beyond the army statements, and discarding roughly any critical journalistic approach will ultimately recontest these media’s credibility and legitimacy.

I am even more concerned, since criticism is a well-known (some would say notorious) practice of the Israeli media. In times like this, in most cases, the opposing voices are not silenced, but instead framed into small side-notes along the mainstream patriotic agenda, only to clarify the so-called proportion of relevancy. ?

For yesterday’s daily critical round-up of the Israeli press, see Oren Persiko’s piece [H] on “The Seventh Eye” (today’s round-up exhibits a different approach);  Ha’aertz’s Gideon Levy took this stand even further; And one other example would be Boaz Gaon’s rather-blunt commentary on today’s “Ma’ariv” (side-column, page 9), in which he writes: “most of those pumping-up this operation know nothing about what’s going on in Gaza. They’re not there, not nearby, I will risk myself writing they don’t even have much interest in being there, otherwise there would be a fissure, half a doubt, protruding their words, a Pinterian pause enabling to learn about mistakes.”

In order to get your own impression of the Israeli media coverage (in English), please see this past post of mine.

I’d be real interested to know how people from around the world perceive the coverage of this conflict by their home media. Here’s Der Spiegel’s round-up of German dailies.