Wednesday, October 13, 2010

investigation into the behavior of journalists at ambush

tadmit@haforum.org.il

Tadmit, the Organization for the Strengthening of Democracy in the Israeli
Media, applied to Danny Seaman, Director of the National Press Office
demanding that they suspend the Press Cards of the reporters
and
photographers who were present at the ambush and stoning of David Be'eri on
Friday.

A letter was sent to the Israeli Press Counsel as well, requesting an
investigation into the behavior of journalists at ambush site, who did
nothing to prevent the violent events and did not offer assistance to the
injured, as stipulated in paragraph 13a of the journalists Code of Ethics.

It is obvious that the event on Friday was organized and staged.
The reporters were invited to photograph a planned violent event, in which
lives were to be endangered.

In the footage, the children and youths participating prepared for the
violence by taking off their shirts and covering up their faces with them.
They had stones prepared to hurl at passing drivers.

Participation of the press in a planned violent event is questionably a
criminal offense which should be investigated by the Israeli police.

This cannot be called "media coverage".

This event is a cynical misuse of Israeli democracy and of the freedom of
the press available in Israel.


Tadmit calls upon the national press office to suspend the press cards not
only of the photographers and reporters who participated in the events this
past Friday, but of the media agencies that sent them.


Tadmit director, Chanie Luz: "The victims of the lynch (a father and son),
as well as the minor child sent by irresponsible adults to hurt innocent
drivers, were a hair's breadth away from being killed in the ambush.

We are talking about a well planned media event, intended for use in the
propaganda war against the State of Israel and its citizens.

The National Press Office must promptly take action to uproot from the media
elements who take advantage of Israeli freedom of the press to agitate,
stage riots and jeopardize human life."

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