Over the past few weeks, Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip
with heavy weaponry, and even a ground invasion. You all already know this. You
all already know that over a thousand Palestinians have died, and the almost
indiscriminate killing is set to continue, as at the time of writing, another
ceasefire has broken down. You already know that the Gazan-Israeli conflict is hideously
one-sided, and you already know that world powers such as the United States are
almost certainly not going to step in, at least in any way that might be
construed as criticising the government in Jerusalem.
So, why write this? What else is there to write? A quick
review of the majority of British news sources reveals my answer. Last week,
the BBC, Sky News, CNN and The Times all ran with a version of the headline
"Israeli Soldier Seized by Militants". Not a word on the 53 Gazans
killed, at least in the headline. It's not so much that these are inaccurate, though
kidnapped is certainly the wrong term to use when a soldier is taken during
combat, as pointed
out on Twitter by Mehdi Hasan, but they are one-sided. They focus on an
Israeli plight, which though tragic, should not be the biggest story today.
Certainly more worrying are the areas of U.S. media, such as
the notorious Fox News, where the likes of Sean Hannity are not only spreading
vitriol and opinion as fact, but frankly putting their own journalists in
danger, for very little reward. As Yousef Munayyer (who you may remember from
the Hannity
vs Brand spat, as the victim of Hannity's "interview") puts it,
"within Fox News there are journalists who are trying to do a far more
professional job in covering this issue. They even have journalists on the
ground in the Gaza strip who are risking their lives to bring the scenes and
images and the reporting of what’s going on there to American viewers".
Instead of sources such as Fox, and even Sky and the BBC
sometimes, I look at the efforts of The Guardian, Channel 4 News (especially
the gallant and up-standing journalism of Jon Snow), and Al-Jazeera. I find
here the same thirst for truth, justice and balance that makes me feel such a
strong desire to join their ranks, to be a professional journalist.
However, even behind the clearly woeful reporting of Hannity
and Co., there are journalists working for Fox News in Gaza, and as Munayyer
reports, actually doing an honest day's work. It's an unfortunate reality, but
once again shows the positive work that journalists do. Hannity is not a
journalist. He is a mouthpiece for the Murdoch Empire. But there are those in
Gaza, for whichever media outlet, with whichever stance, who are trying to
report, and bring us news. This is the work I respect, and wish to do.
There are stories to be told, not only in Gaza, in Nigeria
where Boko Haram still hold over 200 school girls, in Ukraine, where fighting
continues even after the MH17 crash, and in Syria, where the Civil War has been
all but forgotten by the mainstream, as it is overtaken by conflict in Palestine. I have named only a
few, but my point can be applied almost anywhere in the world. Even here, in
leafy, suburban Chelmsford, there are news stories to be written, and
documentaries to be filmed.
Change can be made, and information spread through
journalism. And my early Sunday mornings watching the news, after returning
from work in a bar till 5am, act only to prove to myself that this is the
career for me, and all my continuing hard work will be worthwhile.
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