https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-cnn-censor
#CNN Admits 'Disturbing' Israel-Palestine Coverage Policy 'Has Been in Place for Years'
JULIA CONLEY
Jan 05, 2024
..."CNN has long been criticized by #media analysts and #journalists for its deference to the #Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces in its coverage of the occupied #Palestinian territories, and the cable network admitted Thursday that it follows a protocol that could give Israeli censors influence over its stories.
...
"Every single Israel-Palestine-related line for reporting must seek approval from the [Jerusalem] bureau—or, when the bureau is not
staffed, from a select few handpicked by the bureau and senior management—from which lines are most often edited with a very specific nuance," the staffer said.
...
CNN's senior director of news standards and practices, David Lindsey, told journalists in a November 2 memo that "#Hamas representatives are engaging in inflammatory rhetoric and propaganda... We should be careful not to give it a platform."
Another email sent in October suggested that the network aimed to present the Ministry of Health's casualty figures as questionable, with the News Standards and Practices division telling staffers, "Hamas controls the government in #Gaza and we should describe the Ministry of Health as 'Hamas-controlled' whenever we are referring to casualty statistics or other claims related to the present conflict."
Newsroom employees were advised to "remind our audiences of the immediate cause of this current conflict, namely the Hamas attack and mass murder and kidnap of #Israeli civilians" on October 7.
At least 22,600 people have been confirmed killed in Gaza and 57,910 have been wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. Thousands more are feared dead under the rubble left behind by airstrikes. In Israel, the death toll from Hamas' attack stands at 1,139.
Jim Naureckas, editor of the watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, noted that the Israeli government is controlling journalists' reporting on Gaza as it's been "credibly accused of singling out journalists for violent attacks in order to suppress information."...
