Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East

December 21, 2009

KBRM appeals about Press letters

Following five instances in which The Press failed to allow adequate rebuttal in its letters column to false and defamatory charges against Israel and KBRM, an appeal was lodged with the NZ Press Council, as follows:

We believe that if a newspaper prints false and defamatory charges, they have an obligation to see that the charge is rebutted. This is the essence of our complaint. Even in the letters column, where editors are granted great leeway, Principle #12 calls for fairness, and fairness surely requires that false and defamatory statements be corrected. If a letter or cartoon (which are also given leeway) contains false and defamatory charges against a person, a nation, or an ethnic group, we believe the newspaper has an obligation to see that the charge is refuted. When the false attacks are against Israel, the only Jewish nation in the world, and groups like KBRM who try to fight lies about Israel, they are of special concern because they feed the fires of a growing anti-Semitism (see Bigotry Box)

Following is a summary of five cases where false and defamatory attacks against Israel and KBRM were printed and no rebuttal was allowed. The first two precede the three-month period before our first appeal to the editor, so they may be taken only as illustrative, rather than central to the complaint. (For more details, see attachment “Correspondence with Press editors”.)

April 23. A letter writer called KBRM part of “the Zionist lobby” (not true), and said “any justified criticism” of Israel is “branded as anti-Semitic” (not true), Israel's occupation of the West Bank “is one of the longest, most cruel, brutal, oppressions the world has known” (not true), and “journalists are banned from entering the West Bank” (not true). No rebuttal was permitted.

May 21. A cartoon depicted Israel's PM misinterpreting a comment by Pres. Obama, saying “He said to evict all Palestinians...” (inversion of the truth). No rebuttal was permitted.

August 7. A letter about a cartoon showing Iran's president with a “Death to Israel” sign called it “tragic, baseless, caricaturing propaganda”. (Not only is this not true, but understanding Iran's intent is particularly important as a strike against Iran becomes an imminent possibility.) No responses were permitted.

September 29. A letter said Israel's claim to its land comes “only from the Bible” (not true) and that Israelis “prefer to drive Palestinians from their homes” (not true). It also charged Israel with genocide (an egregious libel). No responses were permitted.

October 17. A letter about the Nazi-themed party at Lincoln University concluded with “in the interests of maintaining a level playing field, for next year might I suggest a burlesque-themed Gaza strip.” This letter appeared six days after The Press excised a reference to Israel as “the much maligned, multicultural, democratic, single Jewish State” from a KBRM letter. The editor agreed that equating Israel's actions in Gaza with Nazism is a false accusation, but refused to make a correction.

Follow-up note: After repeatedly closing the door to KBRM letters rebutting false attacks, The Press opened the door twice (November 14 and 19) to the same person (!) who accused Israel of “destroying a neighbouring country” (not true) and called a KBRM advertisement “Orwellian propaganda” (not true). In this case limited rebuttals were printed, but all the facts that would allow readers to determine the falsity of the charges were not presented, despite many submitted letters (see correspondence).

We request that the editor of the Press be told that his newspaper must allow for rebuttals when it prints false and defamatory charges. If members of the Press Council are not convinced of the falsity of the above charges, KBRM will be happy to provide proof as needed, in a manner convenient for the Council. (To submit proofs for all charges with the complaint would be too voluminous.)

Contact with Publication.

The 18 letters exchanged with The Press editors are shown in the attachment “Correspondence with Press editors”. In addition, there was a one hour meeting with the editor-in-chief. The end result was a refusal to agree that corrections to such charges should be permitted.

Principles Breached

The Press policy breaches the following principles:

2. Corrections. Where it is established that there has been published information that is materially incorrect then the publication should promptly correct the error giving the correction fair prominence. In some circumstances it will be appropriate to offer an apology and a right of reply to an affected person or persons.

12. Letters. Selection and treatment of letters for publication are the prerogative of editors who are to be guided by fairness, balance, and public interest in the correspondents' views.

Chairman, Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East