Israeli spokesmen say the refusal by the three top government leaders to grant interviews to NBC-TV correspondents is an expression of displeasure over a July 1 network documentary on Israel.
Premier Yitzhak Shamir’s spokesman, Avi Pazner, said NBC’s “Six Days Plus 20 Years … A Dream Is Dying” was a “completely biased and one-sided documentary on Israel.” He complained that only non-representative Israeli officials were on camera.
NBC has complained that the refusal of interviews by Shamir, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin is a boycott of the network. The Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin is a boycott of the network. The Foreign Press Association in Israel is looking into the situation, saying official attempts at a boycott of a foreign news agency was a dangerous, undemocratic precedent that smacked of news management such as that practiced in the Soviet bloc.
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