Freedom Flotilla: When BFMTV Torpille Solidarity instead of denouncing arbitrariness

ByMuhammad

This morning on BFMTV, Amandine Atalaya delivered a staggering comment on the #FreEdomflotilla, this international humanitarian mission party to break the blockade of Gaza and illegally arrays by Israel in international waters. Rather than indignant at this flagrant violation of maritime law and violence suffered by the crew, the journalist engaged in a frontal attack against activists on board, going so far as to portray them as “far from being respectable” and qualifying the initiative of “pathetic”.

This reversal of reality is indicative of a media bias too often observed in the treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by certain “big” French media. Instead of doing their information work by exposing the facts – a peaceful humanitarian action, stopped by illegally by the Israeli army in the open sea – there is an inversion of responsibilities, where the victims become the targets of criticism and where the authors of the aggression escape any questioning. This type of narration, where indignation is carefully calibrated according to the identity of the protagonists, participates in an insidious disinformation. These are no longer a question of journalism, but a manifest alignment with the positions of a state which violates international law and commits a genocide in Gaza. When a leading media voice chooses to ignore the blatant injustice to tackle those who denounce it, it becomes an accomplice of the invisibilization of the crimes committed.

By attacking the #FreEdomflotillale crew, Amandine Atalaya has not only failed in journalistic ethics. Above all, she has shown, once again, how some French antennas are ready to twist the real to stick to an editorial line that criminalizes solidarity with Palestine and exemptions.

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Muhammad

Muhammad is a visionary thinker and passionate writer who has been contributing to Understanding Islam for several years.