Israel considers silencing Al Jazeera | Approved a regulation that allows the closure of media

2023-10-21 05:01:00

The Government of Israel is evaluating an emergency regulation with which it could close media outlets on the grounds that they violate national security, a measure with which they seek to stop the broadcasts of the Qatari news network Al Jazeera, journalistic sources warned.

This was reported by the Ynet news portal, which writes that the security cabinet approved a regulation that allows the closure of media outlets in the name of security and that if approved by the Ministry of Defense and the country’s security services, The Ministry of Communication could issue specific closure orders directed at some media outlets.

“Propaganda tool”

In that sense, Ofir Gandelman, Arabic-language spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urged this Friday to close the Al Jazeera correspondent, accusing it of propagating the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. “Al Jazeera is the local network of Hamas. It is not a media tool, but a propaganda tool of the terrorist axis in the Middle East,” Gandelman said in an interview with the public radio station Kan.

The ongoing escalation receives very uneven coverage in the media, as highlighted by the recent death of hundreds of people in the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza: in the absence of a thorough investigation, some attribute it to an Israeli bombing and others, to a rocket misfired by the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.

Since the outbreak of the conflict, Al Jazeera has reported 24 hours a day with images from inside the Gaza Strip, where it has deployed a device visibly superior to most of the media. That is why it was the first media to go to the Al Ahli hospital, after the explosion that caused 470 deaths on Wednesday and whose origin is unclear.

Appeal

“We urge Israel to review its decision,” declared IFJ Secretary General Anthony Bellanger in a comment to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, calling the intention of the Israeli authorities “a clear attack on the pluralism of the media and the public’s right to know.

The secretary general expressed his conviction that Israel is “using national security as an excuse to restrict critical media that does not confirm its narrative of the ongoing war.”