News on Israel

I am writing in response to Stu Oldham’s Footnote to Patricia Goodwin’s letter March 27.

Mr Oldham quotes an American Journalism Review of honestreporting.com.

A quick Google would tell him that it took the name in 1993. The University of Philip Merrill College of Journalism took control in 2011.

In July 2015 the college announced it was terminating publication. In 2013 the Review stopped printing and it became an online-only publication which ceased in 2015, so it is in fact defunct. In contrast Honest Reporting has expanded and exists along with NZ’s own: Shalom Kiwi, Kiwis For Balanced Reporting on the Middle East and Whale Oil’s blog (NZ’s most popular blog), because of misreporting or the skewing of facts, especially when ‘news’ concerns Israel.

Just this month The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) upheld a complaint (March 17, 2017) after Juliet Moses complained that a reporter at TVNZ claimed that Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza was illegal. The BSA referred to the Palmer Report prepared for the UN SecretaryGeneral. The UN panel deemed Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza legal. To quote the Palmer Report to the UN: ‘‘Israel faces a real threat to its security from militant groups in Gaza. The naval blockade was imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law’’.

I suggest readers visit honestreporting.com and read for themselves. One title that took my eye on their Facebook page was ‘‘Interview with a Palestinian Zionist’’. Lea Hullett Timaru Footnote: The American Journalism Review was one of the most respected - and few - academic media watchdogs in the