Israel’s threat requires support for Al Jazeera

When tyrants get backed into a corner, they lash out in a myriad of ways. Some attack their own people. Some take control of the airwaves. Some try to shut down news organizations.

That’s what’s happening in Israel, where lawmakers there are poised to enact a law that would allow authorities to shut down news networks the government doesn’t like. The law is a direct attack on Al Jazeera, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a “terror channel.”

So, what are some of the headlines Israel finds so egregious? These headlines appeared on the Al Jazeera website on Monday, April 1.

● Abbas urges halt of ‘Israeli aggression’ in call with Blinken

● Al-shifa Hospital ‘in ruins’ after Israeli attack

● Al Jazeera correspondent finds brother’s body in Gaza

There’s no terror in any of that reporting. The only terror is the look in Netanyahu’s eyes. He sees the protests in Israel demanding new elections. He sees polls that show a majority of Americans now disapprove of Israel’s actions in Gaza. Now Israel, which says it’s a democratic state, has gone the way of Russia, Malaysia and Egypt who have all issued press restriction when they don’t like what they hear or read.

Russia clamped down on all independent reporting on Ukraine, even making it a crime to call its unjustified incursion there a “war.” In Malaysia, anyone who publishes “fake news”— whatever that is — can get up to three years in jail. In Egypt, you can read state-controlled press, but independent publicans face stringent censorship with its reporters often jailed.

But there is a common thread in any regime that attempts to silence the truth.

Here, it’s not unusual for government officials to try to block the media’s access to public records, threaten to sue before a story is published or, in the case of former Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White, ban a reporter and photographer from public events.

Never works. Never does.

Sure, a government can make it harder to get information to the public, but in the case of Israeli, its people will still be able to get the harrowing truth of what’s happening in Gaza by looking at major American newspapers on the internet.

Here’s an idea. All American news organizations should stand in solidarity with Al Jazeera and announce their war coverage will be free online to anyone in Israel who wants to see it.

That would send some message, wouldn’t it? All news organizations and people who care about press freedom should condemn this anti-press move and call it what it is —an effort by a frightened head of state who feels the walls closing in and needs a distraction.

No one in Israel’s government can stop the free flow of information, just like they can’t in any other country, no matter how hard they try. Reporters have been threatened, jailed and killed, yet they so believe in press freedom they keep printing information the powerful don’t want the populace to see.

We need to support a free press everywhere, not just in places that find it convenient.

We need to support Al Jazeera.

Ray Marcano is a longtime journalist with writing and editing experience at some of the country’s largest media brands. He is a former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists.