Saturday, April 19, 2014

The New York Times agrees to be gagged by Israel

"Margaret Sullivan, The New York Times’ public editor, has written a thoughtful and important piece criticizing the way the newspaper complied with an Israeli-imposed gag order on the case of Majd Kayyal.

But it leaves some important questions unanswered about the Times’ apparent eagerness to let Israeli censors set its news agenda.

Kayyal, a 23-year old journalist and activist and a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was detained incommunicado for five days by Israel’s Shin Bet secret police without access to a lawyer, following a return from a professional trip to Lebanon.

While the Times and other major media remained silent, The Electronic Intifada exclusively published the classified court transcript ratifying his detention and silencing the media.

After the gag order was lifted yesterday, following an appeal by the legal advocacy group Adalah, The New York Times finally published an article on Kayyal, which links to The Electronic Intifada’s coverage."

PS The New York Times and other Western media lie when they justify their surrender to Israeli censorship and regulation in the name of respecting "local laws".  They all are willing to flauntingly defy and violate the laws and regulations of governments that are opposed to the US government.  How many of them snuck into Syria over the last few years and violated the laws and rules of the Syrian government?  Hell, I even received requests from some Western correspondents who wanted to sneak into Syria (away from government control) and I even did my best to help.