Foreign correspondents working in Israel told a public meeting Wednesday that they now put more faith in information from Palestinian sources than in official statements issued by the Israel Defense Force spokesman.
Mary Curtius of The Boston Globe and Martin Fletcher of NBC-TV were addressing a Tel Aviv University seminar on the Palestinian uprising, titled “Covering the Intifada.”
They said that in the 1970s, journalists trusted the accuracy of the IDF spokesman’s reports, but now, the spokesman has become less credible.
The spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ephraim Lapid, explained that a distance of 70 to 100 yards often separates clashing soldiers and rioters. The soldiers who open fire often do not know how many Palestinians they have shot. But the army relies on soldiers’ accounts anyway, he said.
The Palestinians base their accounts on information provided by local hospitals where the casualties are treated. But, he added, the Palestinians sometimes disseminate wrong information “in the interests of their propaganda.”
Willy Werkman, a veteran correspondent in Israel for Dutch television, contested Lapid’s propaganda charge, implying that Israelis were guilty of it themselves.
The foreign correspondents, who are able to cross most borders without problems, agreed, however, that it is much easier to cover Israel than any Arab country, except Lebanon and Jordan.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
