Palestine – Features

By Iqbal Jassat – Chairperson: Media Review Network

Soccer’s premier international event has ensured that South Africa is in international news media’s constant spotlight. Whether the stories revolve on President Zuma’s polygamous lifestyle or on-going labour related strikes, as citizens of this country we have learnt to expect that our country will attract disproportionate media attention.

The presence of most international media houses in bureaus across many cities in South Africa has been reinforced in anticipation of being stretched resource-wise during the 2010 soccer festival. Their challenge will be to provide their respective audiences with on-the-spot commentaries as well as analysis.

Read More »2010 fifa world cup faces propaganda threat from foreign hacks

By Dr. Ahmed Yousef

(source: Union Emirates newspaper)

A lot of attention was given in the media to the recent statement by the Quartet which condemned Israel’s illegal settlement activities. Not so much time was given to a serious analysis of this and previous Quarter statements to evaluate what the latest actually means. Interpretations poured in of what effects this "unprecedented" statement might have inside Israel. Some analysts believed that this would have a negative effect on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position, as if we had not experienced a similar situation during his first term of office in 1996.

The Quartet was formed after the George W Bush administration proposed the "road map" towards peace in 2002; it reflected Bush’s success in making the world powers accept his view of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Representatives from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations make up the Quartet, whose "peace envoy" is Britain’s Tony Blair, who many anti-war activists and lawyers believe should be indicted for war crimes. The group’s record shows no real achievements, which raises doubts about its role and performance.

Read More »Whats new under the quartets sun?

By Tariq Ali

(source: London Review of Books)

A Kashmiri lawyer rang me last week in an agitated state. Had I heard about the latest tragedies in Kashmir? I had not. He was stunned. So was I when he told me in detail what had been taking place there over the last three weeks. As far as I could see, none of the British daily papers or TV news bulletins had covered the story; after I met him I rescued two emails from Kashmir informing me of the horrors from my spam box. I was truly shamed. The next day I scoured the press again. Nothing. The only story in the Guardian from the paper’s Delhi correspondent – a full half-page – was headlined: ‘Model’s death brings new claims of dark side to India’s fashion industry’. Accompanying the story was a fetching photograph of the ill-fated woman. The deaths of (at that point) 11 young men between the ages of 15 and 27, shot by Indian security forces in Kashmir, weren’t mentioned.

Later I discovered that a short report had appeared in the New York Times on 28 June and one the day after in the Guardian; there has been no substantial follow-up. When it comes to reporting crimes committed by states considered friendly to the West, atrocity fatigue rapidly kicks in. A few facts have begun to percolate through, but they are likely to be read in Europe and the US as just another example of Muslims causing trouble, with the Indian security forces merely doing their duty, if in a high-handed fashion. The failure to report on the deaths in Kashmir contrasts strangely with the overheated coverage of even the most minor unrest in Tibet, leave alone Tehran. Read More »Not crushed merely ignored

By Ibrahim Vawda

On Tuesday, 21st December 2010, the Pretoria News ran an article on its front page, headlined: “Al Qaeda link in attack on cop”, by their reporter Graeme Hosken.

The problem with these types of unconfirmed and uncorroborated reporting is that it further enhances the mindset of stereotypes and Islamophobes. The article creates an indelible imprint on the minds of the stereotypes.

The Media Review Network responded by writing to the letters editor. We await its publication. We also hope that Graeme Hosken will further investigate the veracity of the article. If the Al Qaeda link cannot be reliably verified, we anticipate an apology from the reporter for his error in misrepresenting the facts of the matter.

Read More »Press statement mrn awaits response