Words

The first post I wrote after I heard the news that 10 activists had been killed and several soldiers wounded on the flotilla headed for Gaza, was about how the media uses language to describe conflict. The headlines on the television, radio and web were all so drastically different. The words being used too accusatory too quick.

Everyone, from the IDF and traditional media, to independent journalists, bloggers and commentators must think critically about the words they are using. These are the words that will forever be found on the web, will be carried by friends, co-workers and family members and written into our collective histories.

Here is a roundup of other journalists calling us to be wise with words:

• “How About Everybody Watch Their Language, OK?” – Ami Kaufman at Half & Half

• “Fisk accuses reporters of preposterous journalism in reporting conflicts” – Roy Greenslade at The Guardian

• “Israel’s obscene use of the term “Lynching” and the real civil rights analogy” – MJ Rosenburg at the Palestine Note.
• “Using ‘Prepared Scripts’ After Gaza Flotilla Seizure Perpetuates Hateful Rhetoric” – Donniel Hartman at the Shalom Hartman Institute
• “Of Course They Were Asking for It” – Mark Steel at The Independent

Sources

It is also critical that we look at sources. Currently, the majority of raw (or trimmed) video circulating online, is coming from the Israeli Defense Force itself (they learned about YouTube during the last war in Gaza). While some journalists are waiting to be deported in Ben-Gurion airport, according to Reporters Without Borders another 60 – 100 journalists that were on the flotillas are still being held by the Israeli army.

Reporters Without Borders has also learned that the Al Jazeera crew that was aboard the flotilla, including correspondent Abbas Nasser and cameraman Isaam Zaatar, was expelled yesterday.

Reporters Without Borders is aware of 16 journalists being held at Be’er Scheva detention centre. They are Svetoslav Ivanov and Valentin Vassilev of Bulgaria’s BTV, Muna Shester of the Kuwait News Agency, Talat Hussain of Aaj TV, Paul McGeough and Kate Geraghty of the Sydney Morning Herald, Mario Damolin of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, David Segarra of teleSUR, Ayse Sarioglu of Taraf, Murat Palavar and Hakan Albayrak of Yeni Safak, Sümeyye Ertekin, Ümit Sönmez and Ersin Esen of TVNET and Ashwad Ismail and Samsul Kamal Abdul Latip of Astro Awani.

In addition, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, “Othman Battiri, a senior producer at Al-Jazeera who was on board the Mavi Marmara and released on Tuesday, told CPJ that soldiers confiscated Al-Jazeera’s cameras, tapes, satellite phones, and mobile phones.” However, one video was released by Al Jazeera’s journalists before they were censored and several accounts from Freedom Flotilla activists who are in Jordon now are starting to surface.

With this flood of information, we must choose our words wisely, check our sources twice and support the release of all journalists, video tapes, cellphones and cameras in hand.

Journalists are increasingly being censored in Israel — making independent reporting more essential than ever before. You can help “break the blockade,” if you will, by supporting independent journalism now. Contribute one time or become a monthly subscriber. Feel free to contact Alison Avigayil for further details.

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