GPO Warns Flotilla Journalists
June 26, 2011 13:53 by Simon Plosker
Oren Helman
Writing in a 22 June op-ed for YNet, HonestReporting’s Managing Editor Simon Plosker stated:
We should all be extremely concerned by the announcement that among those sailing on the imminent flotilla to Gaza are journalists representing mainstream media, including the New York Times and camera crews from CNN and CBS.
He also said that:
Israel would do well to remind those journalists on board the flotilla that they will be active participants in an illegal attempt to break what is a legal naval blockade under international law.
It appears that the Israeli government agrees. The Director of the Government Press Office, Oren Helman, has sent a letter to all members of the foreign media in Israel warning of the consequences of taking part in the flotilla:
I would like to make it clear to you and to the media that you represent, that participation in the flotilla is an intentional violation of Israeli law and is liable to lead to participants being denied entry into the State of Israel for ten years, to the impoundment of their equipment and to additional sanctions.
I implore you to avoid taking part in this provocative and dangerous event, the purpose of which is to undermine Israel’s right to defend itself and to knowingly violate Israeli law.
Unlike in neighboring Arab states where foreign media are either barred from reporting e.g. the Syrian uprising, or restricted by government appointed “minders” e.g. Libya, the foreign press have almost virtual freedom to report from Israel free from intimidation or threats.
Israel does, however, have the right to draw its own red lines, particularly when journalists are involved in activities that break the law or threaten the security of the state. In this case, those members of the press who are planning to “embed” themselves with the flotilla certainly cannot claim that they haven’t been warned.
UPDATE 27 JUNE 2011: According to Reuters, the Israeli government is reconsidering its threat to bar foreign journalists from entering the country for 10 years.
Why Does Israel Need to Maintain a Naval Blockade?
Find out in this IDF video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Mh4cuLQ8w&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
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GPO Warns Flotilla Journalists «ScrollPost.com
3:25 pm
Jun 26, 2011
[...] and camera crews from CNN and CBS. He also said that: Israel [...]Original article can be viewed at GPO Warns Flotilla Journalists on HonestReporting.Source: Europe & OECD BlogsPublished: 26 June 2011Site: [...]
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Helyn Williams
4:45 pm
Jun 27, 2011
This is all well and good, but why doesn’t the world know these things. Israel, your PR is sadly lacking. Why are there no ads about these things in the Media (especially on TV) seen in the USA, Canada and other countries? That has been my question for years.
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David Winter
4:58 pm
Jun 27, 2011
Interesting that they are leaving from GREECE – a country virtually bankrupt! They would do much better to leave their ‘humanitarian supplies’ with the Greeks who need them more than the profligate residents of Gaza!!!
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Sam
5:25 pm
Jun 27, 2011
The news organizations jobs are to report news. NOT try to make it. Or be a part of it.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Louis Skydell
6:13 pm
Jun 27, 2011
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Agree or Disagree:
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Moshe
9:13 pm
Jun 27, 2011
I think that Israel making a mistake by not deciding and announcing its decision that any ship which will try to break its blockade will be detained, confiscated, and auctioned.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Yair
10:30 pm
Jun 27, 2011
Why keep them out of Israel, when we can keep them in an Israeli prison instead? Show the next row of self-righteous idiots that there is a price to acting like this.
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John Versteege
10:31 pm
Jun 27, 2011
It seems to me that the “world” media will be covering this “event”
Really? Are the chinese, russian, french, Al Jezirah etc going to be on this ship?
On the other hand, the Israeli Gov. should or welcome ANY media to be on their boarding ships, so as to provide a fair and honest view of the situations that may develop…. We, the interested and concerned viewing audience could be best served by this approach. The medias on BOTH sides of the event will have to be honest with the world audience as
their coverage WILL be analyzed against the other side of the coverage, whomever they may be.
It is a form of democratie which has not, to my knowledge, been tried before.
May be it’s a bold approach, but I believe it has merit.
Thanks for your great work.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Nathan Zafran
11:57 pm
Jun 27, 2011
A simple check-up reveals that one reporter (Jewish), I believe for the paper “The Nation” is actually a prominent anti-Israeli, pro-Hamas activist who refused to be interviewed by Israel state radio, “Kol Yisrael”. Therefore, his motive, like others’, is unlikely to be honest and unbiassed. Actually, I consider this whole bunch of participants in the flotilla to be unrepentant hypocrites and phonies. When I see them seriously concerned for the real crimes commited on this planet, rather than demonstrating for the Arabs, there should be flotillas to Port Sudan, Latakia, Tripoli, Aden and others, where real atrocities are being commited. Hardly likely though, because they’d probably be de-balled there, or thrown into prisons and have the keys thrown away. Pathetic crapheads!
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Okey
2:26 am
Jun 28, 2011
I didn’t like the use of the word “implore”in the GPO’s remarks to the foreign media.
Better words would have been “advise”, “counsel” or even “warn.”
Also, I would have liked to see in the statement a pre-emption of anti-Israel journalists’ likely lamentations about Israel’s alleged “silencing of criticism” and “lack of transparency”.
The GPO should have pointed out that collaboration with international criminals is not ethical journalism.
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Think!1
3:50 pm
Jun 28, 2011
I agree; the word “implore” was a very poor choice. In English, it connotes begging. Begging implies weakness.
Israel ought not to be begging anyone; “advise” or “warn” would have been a far better choice.
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Isaac Moses
4:23 am
Jun 28, 2011
Why Does Israel Need to Maintain a Naval Blockade?
Excellent video – it tellsl us what is going on,
Unfortunately the background music in this an many others, is too loud to make out what the speaker is saying..
Sincerely,
Isaac Moses
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Brent Pudsey
5:05 am
Jun 28, 2011
This is a well written piece by Plosker which seeks to explain misconceptions and paint the Gaza blockade in a more informed manner. He has demonstrated Israel’s need for self defence against her enemies as well as the struggles she faces with bad media and journalism which seeks to portray her as an aggressive barbarian nation.
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Barbara Stone
9:03 am
Jun 28, 2011
There’s nothing humanitarian about the latest attempt by ‘activists’ to breach the Gaza blockade – with its border with Egypt now open, a collateral bonus from the so-called Arab Spring and tens of thousands of tons of supplies entering Gaza via the Israeli-controlled crossing – the latest ‘peace flotilla’ is a sham, again aimed at discrediting and delegitimizing Israel. However, after the Mavi Marmara fiasco, when the erstwhile ‘peace activists’ were outed as IHH provocateurs and thugs, it may well be that honest, objective reporters on board the flotilla will actually serve some useful purpose and the GPO’s denial of entry into Israel may be a PR own-goal. Foreign correspondents are only too aware democratic Israel is the only country in the Mid-East from which they are free to operate and the threat of a 10-year ban could be counter-productive, since it can be construed as putting Israel in the same censorious bracket as those deniers of human rights and Press freedom,notably Syria, Lebanon, Gaddif-controlled Libya and Saudi Arabia. Besides, the GPO must know which journos can be relied upon to report fairly and accurately (i.e. certainly not the BBC, Guardian, CNN and some elements of the US print media)
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Think!1
3:59 pm
Jun 28, 2011
Which specific reporters do you believe to be “honest, objective reporters”? The purpose of the flotilla this time is not much different from the last, with one proviso: this one comes just before 9/11–the date Palestine seeks statehood. With a few reporters dead, you can just imagine how that would affect reporting by their fellows safely back home in the New York Times offices. Thus, this tactic is designed not to report the news, but to influence the outcome.
Just as scientists cannot observe certain phenomena without affecting them, so, too, reporters aboard a ship where force may well be required to protect Israel’s blockade could affect Israel’s ability to take appropriate action and/or to defend her sailors.
Al Jazeera must be salivating already.
Of course reporters are also embedded in war zones everywhere. But we do not see the uproar Al Jazeera created worldwide after the IHH activists were killed last time when embedded reporters are killed elsewhere, do we? So it is not the potential accidental death of embedded reporters that matters here; it is the use to which those deaths would be put by Al Jazeera and the other opponents of Israel’s right to defend herself.
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