media review: Hundreds of writers boycott New York Times over Gaza coverage

media review: Hundreds of writers boycott New York Times over Gaza coverage

    Wednesday, October 29, 2025   No comments

As of yesterday Oct. 28, over 150 contributors, and the list is growing, to the New York Times have declared a boycott of its opinion section, accusing the paper of “biased coverage” of Israel’s war on Gaza.

In a joint letter cited by Middle East Eye, the writers said the Times “launders the US and Israel’s lies,” and called for an internal review of anti-Palestinian bias and a US arms embargo on Israel.

“Until the New York Times takes accountability for its biased coverage and commits to truthfully and ethically reporting on the US-Israeli war on Gaza, any putative ‘challenge’… is, in effect, permission to continue this malpractice,” the letter read.

Signatories include Rashida Tlaib, Greta Thunberg, Chelsea Manning, Sally Rooney, Rima Hassan, Elia Suleiman, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Dave Zirin.

Media Review: Shifting Public Opinion and Israel’s Media Suppression Amid Gaza’s Devastation

Media Review: Shifting Public Opinion and Israel’s Media Suppression Amid Gaza’s Devastation

    Wednesday, July 30, 2025   No comments

Media Review: UK Media and the Gaza Genocide--Legal Implications of Editorial Complicity

Media Review: UK Media and the Gaza Genocide--Legal Implications of Editorial Complicity

    Friday, March 14, 2025   No comments

The revelation that top UK media editors held private meetings with former Israeli military chief General Aviv Kohavi amid Israel’s military campaign in Gaza raises profound ethical and legal concerns. As reported by Declassified UK, these meetings took place in November 2023, after Israeli forces had already killed over 10,000 Palestinians. Given the documented intent of Israeli officials and military leaders to commit acts that meet the legal definition of genocide, the media's engagement with Kohavi in this manner raises serious questions about complicity.

The Genocide Convention (1948) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) define genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group. Complicity in genocide, under international law, includes aiding and abetting such acts through direct assistance, incitement, or failure to prevent and expose the crime.

Given that Kohavi had previously justified the killing of journalists and attacks on civilian infrastructure, his influence over UK media executives raises concerns about whether these news organizations played a role in shaping public perception in ways that could shield Israel from accountability.

Historically, media institutions have been held accountable for their role in enabling crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) set a precedent in Prosecutor v. Nahimana, Barayagwiza, and Ngeze (2003), where media executives were convicted for inciting genocide through biased reporting and propaganda. While UK media organizations may not have directly incited violence, their editorial choices—such as suppressing critical perspectives on Israeli war crimes or echoing Israeli military narratives—could be scrutinized under similar legal reasoning.

Declassified UK reports that BBC News online’s Middle East editor, Raffi Berg, has been accused of manipulating coverage to favor Israel. Similarly, internal documents from The Guardian allegedly show systematic amplification of Israeli government propaganda. These revelations suggest that UK media institutions may have contributed to the suppression of factual reporting on war crimes in Gaza.

Furthermore, the absence of equivalent meetings with Palestinian representatives raises further concerns about bias. By selectively engaging with Israeli officials while disregarding Palestinian voices, UK media institutions may have played a role in legitimizing Israel’s military actions, which have been widely condemned as potential war crimes.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) and other legal bodies have jurisdiction over crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. If it is demonstrated that UK media organizations systematically downplayed or whitewashed evidence of genocidal intent and actions, their senior figures could, in theory, be investigated for complicity.

Additionally, under UK domestic law, complicity in war crimes may fall under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows courts to prosecute individuals who are linked to international crimes, regardless of where they occurred. The precedent set by previous war crimes trials suggests that media executives could face legal scrutiny if their actions are deemed to have materially aided a genocidal campaign.

The secret meetings between UK media leaders and General Kohavi amid the Gaza war raise serious ethical and legal concerns. If it is found that UK media outlets systematically enabled Israeli narratives while suppressing Palestinian perspectives, there may be grounds for legal accountability under international law.

At the very least, these revelations underscore the urgent need for greater transparency in media operations and the imperative to uphold journalistic integrity in conflict reporting. Moving forward, media organizations must be held to higher standards to ensure that they do not, knowingly or unknowingly, contribute to crimes of mass atrocity.

How the State Department Let Israel Get Away With Horrors in Gaza

How the State Department Let Israel Get Away With Horrors in Gaza

    Sunday, January 26, 2025   No comments

A detailed investigative reporting on what the US state department did and did not do during the Gaza war. 

Read the report.

This comes when other news media outlets reported that "Former State Department officials concerned about the U.S. role in Israel's war in Gaza."

These developments happen as the extent of death and destruction in Gaza is now being examined, with reports that the 46,000 figure for deaths, could be much lower. 

Gaza death toll an underestimate, Lancet study suggests

From the beginning of the war through June 30, 2024, Gaza's heath ministry said just under 38,000 people had been killed by traumatic injuries, but the Lancet's estimate — published in a peer-reviewed study based on data from health authorities, social media obituaries and an online survey — was that more than 64,000 people had been killed during that time.

Nika Soon-Shiong said LA Times endorsement was blocked over Gaza war support

Nika Soon-Shiong said LA Times endorsement was blocked over Gaza war support

    Sunday, October 27, 2024   No comments

CNN and other media outlets reported that "the daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong suggested on Saturday that herfather’s decision to block the newspaper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris was made over Harris’ support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Nika Soon-Shiong, a 31-year-old activist who has no official role at the newspaper but has previously been accused of meddling in its coverage, told The New York Times that she and her father made the decision not to endorse Harris. Nika Soon-Shiong reportedly said:

“Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process... As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.”

Before Biden dropped out, it was argued that Gaza Genocide will be for Biden what Covid-19 was for Trump. Harris, not making a clear shift in Biden's policies and approach made her inherit his legacy and that will likely sink her bid for the presidency. Young Americans, especially, are not willing to look past the atrocities in Gaza and now Lebanon happening under Biden's watch and by his support.

The National is publishing a full chronology of Israel's war on Gaza

The National is publishing a full chronology of Israel's war on Gaza

    Friday, October 11, 2024   No comments

Message from the editor of The National: Tomorrow's front page explained

It is a year since Israel began the deadliest attack on Palestine in modern history.

According to Oxfam, more women and children have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza this past year than in the equivalent period of any other conflict in the last two decades.

I could go on and on, provide statistic after statistic from respected charities and NGOs. But none of it could ever fully capture the reality of the situation in Gaza.

One of our political reporters attended a devastating press conference this week, hosted by the Palestinian ambassador, hearing from two women who had lost dozens of family members who described the horrors facing their people every day.

There were three journalists from English-language outlets there. Just three.

We are a very small team compared to some of the legacy titles in the UK, and we could find the time to send a reporter to this important event. Why couldn't our other media colleagues?

You could fill every newspaper in the country from cover to cover, reporting news on the horrors occurring in Gaza. But many papers can't even fill a news brief.

So we decided to work with dedicated campaigners, and fill our front page, and a huge chunk of our newspaper, with a detailed chronology of exactly what Israel has done to Gaza.

Tomorrow's front page of The National aims to highlight the scale of the atrocities taking place in Palestine, and shows that the media have a responsibility to use their platforms to share the reality of the situation with the world.

We publish a timeline of a year of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. It’s all here in black and white—the war crimes, murdered journalists, flattened hospitals, orphaned children. 7567 words, 42,000 deaths. Don’t look away.’ - Laura Webster, Editor.

                            Message from the editor of The National (https://www.thenational.scot/)