BBC interviewee admits intimidation of journalists in Gaza

Courtesy of MEMRI we learn that Hamas spokesperson (or “Director of Foreign Affairs at the Palestinian Government Information Office” as she has been described by the BBC in the past) Isra Almodallal appeared on the Lebanese TV station Al Mayadeen on August 14th.  In that interview Almodallal described how Hamas intimidated members of the foreign press who reported the ‘wrong’ message.

“…[she] complained that “the coverage by foreign journalists in the Gaza Strip was insignificant compared to their coverage within the Israeli occupation (Israel).”

“Moreover,” she said, “the journalists who entered Gaza were fixated on the notion of peace and on the Israeli narrative.” She asserted that the foreign press was focused “on filming the places from where missiles were launched. Thus, they were collaborating with the occupation.” 

“These journalists were deported from the Gaza Strip,” al-Mudallal said. “The security agencies would go and have a chat with these people. They would give them some time to change their message, one way or another.

“We suffered from this problem very much,” she added. “Some of the journalists who entered the Gaza Strip were under security surveillance. Even under these difficult circumstances, we managed to reach them, and tell them that what they were doing was anything but professional journalism and that it was immoral.” “

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVjDiI1xm4U

Readers may recall that just a week prior to the commencement of Operation Protective Edge, the BBC World Service saw fit to give Isra Almodallal an unchallenged platform from which to promote the theory that “Israel is looking for excuses to punish Hamas” and additional propaganda.

Seeing as none of the BBC’s journalists working in the Gaza Strip has stated otherwise, it seems safe to assume that they were not among those reporters with which the “security agencies” in the Gaza Strip “would go and have a chat”. Apparently Ms Almodallal and her team are quite satisfied with the BBC’s level of “professional journalism”. 

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