Reuters Reports False Claims, But Ignores Flotilla Facts

Gilead Ini
CAMERA Media Analysis
30 July '10

Aug. 1 Update: Reuters continues to stand by their biased and misleading language. A senior editor responsible for standards indicated that the media giant would not be amending their wording since, he insists, what happened on the Mavi Marmara is a matter of "considerable controversy." Yet aside from possible denials by some extreme activists, there is no controversy whatsoever on the question of whether the Israeli soldiers were attacked when they landed on the ship, especially in light of the video footage of the incident.


July 30 – The role of a news organization is to uncover and report the facts, not to hide them once they have already come to light. Yet Reuters inexcusably does the latter in its July 30 report, "U.N. rights body tells Israel to end Gaza blockade." The article tells readers that the attack by activists on Israeli troops boarding the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara is nothing more than an Israeli claim denied by activists, in effect suggesting that Israeli soldiers might not have actually been attacked on the ship.

"Israel admitted errors in planning the raid but justified the use of lethal force saying its marines came under attack from activists wielding knives and clubs. Activists deny this," the report notes. (Emphasis added.)

This language, which casts the attack as an unsettled matter of dispute, is highly misleading, as it fails to inform readers that the Israeli troops were indeed, unequivocally and clearly, attacked, a fact corroborated by video evidence. In other words, activists who deny that Israeli soldiers were attacked are lying, and demonstrably so.

In an April 2009 blog post, media critic Jay Rosen, of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, faulted what he called "he said, she said" journalism. In such journalism, he explained, "no real attempt is made to assess clashing truth claims" in a story, even though "the means for assessment do exist, so it’s possible to exert a factual check on some of the claims."

This is precisely what Reuters does in its July 30 story.

(Read full analysis)

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