NGO Monitor blacklisted
NGO Monitor has been the subject of media bans.
The NGO watchdog, created in the wake of the infamous 2001 Durban Conference, maintains a close scrutiny of the activities of NGOs within Israel.
Its head, Professor Gerald Steinberg writes:
Gerald Steinberg
In a November 30 article published in The Atlantic (What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel), former AP journalist Matti Friedman states that, during his time at the AP Jerusalem bureau, reporters had explicit orders “to never quote [NGO Monitor] or its director… Gerald Steinberg. In my time as an AP writer moving through the local conflict, with its myriad lunatics, bigots, and killers, the only person I ever saw subjected to an interview ban was this professor.”
“Matti Friedman’s revelations regarding the efforts to censor NGO Monitor and me as its president are not entirely surprising,” said Professor Gerald Steinberg, president and founder of NGO Monitor. “Based on our experience in publishing detailed research on over 150 NGOs claiming to promote human rights and humanitarian objectives, we are aware of the intense efforts to maintain the NGO ‘halo effect’ and prevent critical debate. While the AP censorship was explicit, we have experienced similar silencing from other media platforms.”
Friedman also highlights the “ethical gray zone of ties between reporters and NGOs” in Israel, where journalists socialising in the same circles as NGO officials seek employment with NGOs, and adapt to a journalistic culture in which NGOs “are to be quoted, not covered.”
This absence of critical analysis of political NGOs reinforces their biases and the lack of professional methodology. Friedman rightly criticises, “one of the strangest aspects of coverage…namely, that while international organisations are among the most powerful actors in the Israel story, they are almost never reported on.”
Professor Steinberg continued: “When NGO Monitor was founded following the 2001 NGO Forum of the UN Durban conference, our primary objective was to open debate and provide accountability where none existed, develop systematic checks and balances, and ‘speak truth to NGO power.’ The importance of this mission has grown since then, as has the political influence of NGOs, as well as their funding and media impact, particularly in the Israeli context.”
