LOC22:19
19:19 GMT
BRUSSELS, Oct 19 (KUNA) -- Two weeks after the start of the war in Gaza, the communication war is intense, with each side defending "its" truth, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said in a press release Thursday.
Banned from working in the Gaza Strip, an open-air prison for Palestinian civilians, many foreign journalists all too often use secondary sources or "official" sources from each side, without being able to check their veracity, it noted.
This works to the detriment of citizens, one of whose fundamental rights is "to be well informed", said IFJ
Confusing haste with speed, many media have published false information and images that have not been contextualised, verified or presented as reliable.
This has led some news organisations to make official apologies, such as BBC about their coverage of pro-Palestinian demonstrations across Britain or CNN a few days ago, which had claimed that Israeli babies had been beheaded in southern Israel, rightly provoking outraged reactions around the world, it noted.
In addition to checking its sources, the IFJ calls on newsrooms around the world to "respect the dignity of the persons quoted and/or represented" by refraining from publishing shocking images that are often widely shared on social networks.
IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: "Our professional principles, detailed in the IFJ Global Ethics Charter, are the foundation of the journalist's mission."
"Respect for the facts and for the right of the public to truth is the first duty of the journalist," he said.
The Brussels-based IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 146 countries. (end)
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