Minding the media
Arnold Roth’s daughter was killed in the suicide bombing attack on a Jerusalem restaurant in 2001. He has addressed a lunch in his native Melbourne.
The founder of the Malki Foundation, named after his daughter, spoke at the Chabad of Melbourne CBD luncheon on ‘Israel: How true to its principles can the news reporting industry be in a war of rockets and tunnels?’
Arnold Roth speaks
Roth has addressed the UN and the European Parliament and has shared an Israeli perspective on leading T.V. & radio stations and newspapers around the globe.
When university students studying journalism are asked by Roth “What have you learned about ‘Ethics and Journalism?’ many are stumped with some responding “We covered Plagiarism extensively.”
Arnold Roth, Rabbi Chaim Herzog and Leon Shapiro
“That’s great, journalistic ethics to protect journalists,” Arnold observes wryly. The ethics of honest and contextually accurate reporting appears to represent a glaring gap in their curriculum.
Roth told the luncheon group: “This is not just a minor oversight; inaccurate, inflammatory reporting can be lethal. Take the example of Muhammad al-Durrah, a Gazan boy. France 2- a government financed TV station- showed one minute of footage and said that the boy was killed by IDF fire. Many terrorists over the past 12 years have justified their killings in Israel, Iraq and France as revenge for al-Durrah’s death. Problem: the raw footage records the ‘dead boy’ itching his forehead after his ‘death’.
Journalists are expected by the public to report the truth. When they don’t, their words can be deadly.”
Roth advised the community: “Don’t wait till you see skewed articles and then write letters to the editor. Rather, explain Israel’s narrative and defend it’s actions to neighbours, acquaintances and most importantly to editors, producers, politicians and people of influence. Let them report ethically in the first instance.”
Narratives don’t co=exist peacefully. They clash and the one closer to the truth stands. Zionists have for over a decade refused to debate their narratives with their opponents and have thus been left with no credibility. The use of smear, slander and abuse has lost its power and charges of anti-Semitism thrown at critics of Israel, don’t evoke any response or sympathy from others.