CDFJ: Many Western media outlets failed the credibility test and work to serve Israeli disinformation campaigns

shahennews

Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) asserted that many Western media outlets have failed the test of credibility, objectivity, and impartiality since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
CDFJ said: “Many Western media outlets are working to serve Israeli disinformation campaigns, and have played a role in promoting Israeli lies and fake news.”
The Center explained that the position of the Western media is not due to a lack of knowledge of professional standards, but rather a blatant political bias at the expense of independence and professionalism.
CDFJ said that well-established Western media outlets did not put the effort to verify the false and fabricated narratives of the leaders of the Israeli occupation, and were complicit in spreading misinformation about the beheading of Israeli children, accusing the Palestinian Islamic Jihad of targeting the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, and absolving the occupation of its responsibility for this massacre without investigation and scrutiny.
The Center added: “Media outlets did not review history, nor their archives to see the number of lies that the occupation authorities have spread in the past decades. If media outlets had waited a little longer, it would have become clear to them that dozens of crimes Israel had committed and disavowed would have been proven with conclusive evidence that they were behind them and involved in implementing them, and this is documented by United Nations reports, missions’ reports, and independent international committees.”
Further, CDFJ condemned the bias of many Western media outlets based on the identity and affiliation of the victims, and not on the basis of the right to life, the right to human dignity, and all the rights guaranteed by the International Bill of Human Rights and international humanitarian law.
The Center pointed out that the human rights framework since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza has been absent in many Western media outlets, as they did not care to the war crimes committed in Gaza, nor did they raise their voices to demand basic needs such as the right to life, food, water, shelter, and protection of medical teams and hospitals, and their cameras did not capture the hundreds of children who were martyred.
CDFJ brought to mind how the Western media sided in the Ukrainian war, how they supported the right of the Ukrainian people to confront the “Russian aggression”, and how they shed light on the crimes and human rights violations that occurred in Ukraine, and asked: “Why did the conscience of the Western media wake up in Ukraine, and most of it did not about what is happening in Gaza?”
The Center stated that the codes of professional conduct and professional ethics that the Western media considered, especially independence and rejection of bias, were deliberately neglected and not applied.
On the other hand, the Center criticized the harassment campaigns carried out by media outlets against journalists who criticize the Israeli aggression, support Palestinian rights, or express objection to their media outlets’ bias towards the Israeli narrative.
CDFJ said that journalists were expelled from their work because of criticism of the Israeli leadership, and others were referred for investigation because of their declared positions, in addition to others who had the courage to submit their resignations in protest against the blatant bias of their institutions.
The Center warned of the Israeli occupation’s tendency to close many media outlets under the pretext of “harming national security,” noting that the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate spoke about this in detail in a statement.
CDFJ called on the Western media to review its positions, commit to spreading the truth, align with the concepts of justice and right, and adopt the human rights standards that they have always talked about in their coverage and press reports.
Moreover, the Center, once again, called for a campaign of solidarity with the media in Palestine, against which systematic campaigns are being carried out to silence, reminding us of the journalists who became martyrs since the beginning of the Israeli aggression.
The Center stated that the Israeli occupation, by targeting journalists, wants to hide its crimes, noting that killing witnesses (journalists) does not kill the truth.