'Western media has failed tremendously in covering Israeli-Palestinian conflict,' says Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin
Al Jazeera correspondents described their views on international media coverage in Gaza
– 3 min read
This article was migrated from an old version of our website in 2025. As a result, it might have some low-quality images or non-functioning links - if there's any issues you'd like to see fixed, get in touch with us at info@journalism.co.uk.
There used to be something here that couldn't be migrated - please contact us at info@journalism.co.uk if you'd like to see this updated!
"Gaza is being choked to death in front of the world to see, and no one does anything," the region's correspondent for Al Jazeera English said in a live online interview hosted by Journalism.co.uk today .
The crisis in Gaza continues to this day, despite 'the sacrifice of so many,' Ayman Mohyeldin said, in answer to questions from online users. "One can't help but feel anger and frustration as to how the world allows for this to happen."
The media portrayal for Gaza is partly responsible for the lack of intervention in the crisis, he said. "The western media has failed tremendously in covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict accurately and contextually.
"It has lost perspective and credibility in covering it, yet western governments continue to play a role in the region.
"If people in the west understood what was happening in Gaza, in the West Bank, accurately, they would demand more from their governments," he added.
"They would not tolerate what has continued for decades and now what is happening in Gaza. I am extremely frustrated by how Gaza and the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict is portrayed, in the western world particularly," said Mohyeldin, who also covered the war in Iraq for two years.
Sherine Tadros, a middle east reporter for the channel, who travelled to Gaza at very short notice in November 2008, described the pressures of being part of the only English-language broadcast team on the ground during the Israeli ban on international media , following its military attack on Gaza in December 2008.
During the 12-day media block, Al Jazeera English was the only major English-language broadcaster team with access to the region, although the BBC did have two producers working out of Gaza. "There was definitely exhilaration at being the only ones covering the war, even if that came along with a great sense of responsibility, that I still feel now," Tadros, who is normally based in Doha, said.
Journalists are failing to tell the story even without a ban, Tadros said, in answer to a question from the researcher Nina Bigalke, who is looking at Al Jazeera's work for the UK-based think-tank, POLIS. "I think it comes down to finance and editorial judgement," Tadros said. "Unless there is a military operation - i.e a sexy picture - editors won't spend on deploying teams to cover humanitarian tragedies.
"Gaza is a hard one because the Israeli siege has dragged on for so long it seems as though you are covering the same story over and over again. I think the trick as a journalist is to find a way to tell stories like Gaza from the perspective of individuals, so that people can relate and the story is appealing," Tadros added.
Tadros said the 'success' of the Gaza coverage had been the incorporation of emotion and feeling in the reporting. "We lived the war with the 1.5 million Gazans and we tried to tell it how it was," she said.
One user asked how the presence of international media would have altered events, or the order of the war. "It's a double edged sword," answered Mohyeldin.
"More people would have been aware of the war in Gaza, but they would have probably would have known more inaccurately. An American newspaper had a front page picture of Palestinian mother who had lost her children and an Israeli woman who lost the roof of her house next to each other with a caption about suffering on both sides.
"I think that is irresponsible journalism and had those types of journalists been inside Gaza, I doubt they would have been able to get the reality of what was happening on the ground by their editors back in the US or Europe," Mohyeldin said.
Tadros added that the Israeli decision to stop the media, and 'lessen the bad PR,' was 'as strategic as the military planning of the war'.
"One Israeli official told me - off the record - that the reason they didn't want western [journalists] in there, was that they were afraid one would get killed and they would have to stop the war or at least calm it down," she said.
