Is The Media Telling The Truth About Gaza war?

When a war breaks out between two opposing sides, we rely on the media to let us know what is happening.
The saying ‘Truth is the first casualty of war’ has never been more apt when looking at the media’s coverage of the Israeli Hamas conflict in Gaza.

Whether attributed to US politician Senator Hiram Warren Johnson in 1918, Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1758, or even the ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus around 550 BC, the quote would appear to accurately recognise the challenge facing both sides of the equation during times of crisis.

But how do we know if the media is telling the truth?
The current conflict in the Middle East is being covered by hundreds of the world’s media including the BBC, America’s CNN, Sky News, AFP in France and Al-Jazeera.

But how do we know if all these organisations are not giving us biased information depending on their political perspective of the conflict?

Bastien is a French freelance journalist, has covered this war for several weeks said: “The real journalist tells the truth.” And he added “As a French journalist, the presence of journalists in Gaza was limited because of the lack of journalist and media coverage allowed to be in Gaza. limited number of journalists allowed many of them working for Aljazeera and few other freelancers.

“We were allowed to be on the other side controlled by Israel and know the information from them.”
Bastien believes that whether the Palestinian side or the Israeli side they both have two different version of the truth want media to cover.
He saw journalists in the West Bank area from the Czech Republic and he said, “You can know and notice that they are facing pressure from their governments to bias the Israeli side,” and added, “We in France, better to cover events more transparently,”

Bastien wrote many articles about hostages and the situation of civilians in the West Bank and Gaza as well. In his view, any article will mention facts that can be well received on one side and there will be another side that will be opposed and there will be negative backlash and sometimes both sides are unhappy with coverage.
Accurately covering events requires many journalists as well as a large budget, so a petition was signed by many journalists to the French government to open the crossings to enable more journalists to cover the news as well as protect Palestinian journalists from killing.

“All the wars that I covered from the war of Ukraine for Sudan and then the war of Gaza always tries to draw you towards the truth from their point of view,” says Bastien. A clear example is when the Baptist hospital was blown, each party blamed the other and in the absence of coverage from within, it is difficult to verify the truth. Some pictures were published, which were confirmed to be fabricated, although they were published in major newspapers, such as the pictures of dead children published by Israel media.

For Bastien, the most important part of finding the truth is to search in different areas he moved from Israel parts to the Palestinian parts covering different sides of the story.

The major media organisation also struggles to cover news from Gaza “It’s difficult to cover, the best way to cover war story is to be there and it’s become impossible after the Gaza October the 7th” Owen Amos BBC Journalist.

These difficulties make the BBC rely on one main journalist, few freelancer journalists and two news agencies are not enough for the coverage of Gaza, a small place.
He said “About the media being biased we are constantly aware of what both sides think about our coverage.” And added “We try to take the middle path every single day with a balanced approach”.

The BBC has received many criticisms from social media as well as many demonstrations in front of its headquarters in London who consider it not to cover the truth properly and some media critics such as Dima Al-Khatib, executive director and a journalist at AJ who posted a stinging tweet in her account and said “When I was an aspiring journalist I used to look up to the BBC. Now I read this and I am appalled”, commenting on a news published by BBC about the death of Palestinians due to an explosion in Gaza, Owen responded that they focus on transmitting news without focussing on the noise that occurs in the background.

As for the news that faced criticism for its sting in the wording, he said, “There are minor mistakes we make, yes, but on the other hand, we work long hours, produce large content and we remain a good tyrant.”
BBC News was established in 1922 which makes it one of the timeworn news outlets and what distinguishes BBC from other channels is the experience of wisdom and the history of professional work Owen thinks, and he adds “We are as good as anyone else”.

Media channels in the Middle East allocate a large budget to cover events in the region where there are many wars in various countries. Mohammed Abdul Raouf senior news reporter for the Arabia channel

, which belongs to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has a somewhat balanced policy towards the world and its positions are media neutral.
Rauf told us “We are transferring the event first” from the point of view of the Arabs as Rauf mentioned that the Western media has taken Israel’s side historically and ignored the situation of the Palestinians. Rauf added, “In this war because the human tragedy is great in Gaza, we cover it more and we do not take any sides.”

Through these interviews with specialists, the most important point in conveying the truth is that journalists must be in the ground. so far, more than 63 journalists have been killed in Gaza, and there are journalists who have lost people from their families, perhaps the most famous of which is Al-Jazeera channel journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh Al Jazeera bureau chief, who lost his wife and children. After that, he appeared in the news bulletin a little later, which shows that the transfer of the event contemporaneously is large part of the work of the press.

On the same point, other directors of the newsrooms in one of the most famous Arab channels, who preferred not to be identified said” It is heart breaking to see anyone die, and it is harder when we see fellow journalists being targeted. “he added “I’m afraid that any party targeting journalists and civilians will not hold accountability. unfortunately, this will not end’’.

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In Gaza war beside the difficulties in covering the truth for the media, because of the lack of access and there are two sides of the truth. Moreover, other pressure played by the social media have taken huge part in the transition of information to the public and may not be subject to censorship or even confirmation of the authenticity of the news. Beside that many boycott campaigns, popular demonstrations and cultural and societal dimensions that are transmitted first in social media. The public seems to be the scathing critics of the media more rather than focusing on the truth.