PMWATCH - March 27, 2002 -- A long standing practice by AP, Reuters,
and other news outlets, is to lead their stories by allegations and
accusations made by the Israelis, even when Palestinians deny or accuse
back just as vehemently.  Indeed, when was the last time you read an AP 
story that opened with the Palestinian version of a contested version of 
reality?  

Here is blatant example of this practice: the opening paragraph of the story 
below reads:  "Two observers from an international force in Hebron were shot 
and killed when Palestinians opened fire on their car in the West Bank on Tuesday, 
the Israeli military said".

The opening paragraph could have easily read: "Two observers 
from an international force in Hebron were shot and killed when Israeli 
soldiers opened fire on their car in the West Bank on Tuesday, the 
Palestinian Authority said".

And yet, the lead paragraph has to open with with Israel allegations, 
presented basically as a fact throughout the story.  We have to wait 
until paragraph 5 to read: "Although the Israeli military said Palestinian 
gunmen were to blame, Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu said 'it is still 
not clear who opened fire.'" 

Worse yet, the categorical denial by the Palestinian Authority is totally 
left unmentioned.  In a BBC story that same day, we read: "The Palestinian 
leadership, however, said in a statement that the Israeli army had opened fire 
on the car. 'The Israeli army bears full responsibility for this crime,' it 
said."     http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1895000/1895463.stm

Not a word of this from the AP story. 

Please impress upon AP and all news oulets, your paper and other papers, to take a 
step back from blatantly adopting the official Israeli spin.  Unless the journalist 
was there and saw who did what, it should be a rule that if both sides deny that they 
are responsible for something, then the opening paragraph MUST reflect this -- PLUS the 
body of the story should ALWAYS contain denials by the PA when they articulate them.

Here are some previous relevant findings by PMWatch:


http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/reports/newssummaryJuly2001.html#_Toc521668910

http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/reports/pi/newssummaryjune2001.html#_Toc516248049

http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/reports/pi/newssummarymay2001.html#_Toc516248049

http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/reports/042401report.html#_Toc512701384

Fill your contact info and your letter and click send.  It will be sent to:

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		evening@cbsnews.com
		foreign@phillynews.com
		michael.moran@msnbc.com
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Palestine Media Watch
http://www.pmwatch.org

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20020326/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_ambush

Int'l Observers Killed in West Bank 
Tue Mar 26, 5:13 PM ET 

JERUSALEM - Two observers from an international force
in Hebron were shot and killed when Palestinians
opened fire on their car in the West Bank on Tuesday,
the Israeli military said, the first to die since the
force was set up eight years ago.
   
The observers, serving in the Temporary International
Presence in Hebron, were driving on a bypass road used
mostly by Jewish settlers when their car came under
fire near Halhoul, a West Bank town north of Hebron.

A Norwegian official in the West Bank said the two
dead were Turkish and Swiss. Kim Zamder, an official
with the peace force, said they were traveling in a
clearly marked car that ran into cross fire. A third
observer, also Turkish was slightly wounded.

Turkish TV identified the dead Turkish observer as
Maj. Cengiz Soytunc. Capt. Huseyin Ozaslah was
wounded, the report said. The Swiss observer was not
immediately identified.

Although the Israeli military said Palestinian gunmen
were to blame, Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu said
"it is still not clear who opened fire."

The force, made up of unarmed observers from
Scandinavian and European countries, was set up in
1994 after an Israeli settler massacred 19 Muslim
worshippers at a site holy to both Muslims and Jews.

In 1997, Israel and the Palestinians signed an
agreement dividing Hebron into Palestinian and
Israeli-controlled zones, and TIPH continued its
monitoring role.

The city was divided because about 450 Israeli
settlers live in three enclaves in the center of the
city, among about 130,000 Palestinians. The TIPH
observers, recognizable by their white cars, make
periodic reports about violations of the truce.

Settlers charge that the observers are biased against
them, while Palestinians say that the settlers. among
the most militant in the West Bank, constantly harass
the local Palestinians.