The following letter, printed in today’s New York Times-owned International Herald Tribune, could equally well apply to coverage in many western media:
Balancing Gaza coverage
While your newspaper has been covering the fighting between Fatah and Hamas and Israel’s strikes against Hamas targets, there has been essentially no coverage of the continuing Hamas rocket attacks on Sderot.
Thanks to other sources, I have learned that in the last few days, Hamas has fired over 50 rockets – and is continuing rocket fire – at Sderot. At least two Israelis have been seriously injured, dozens of other Israelis have suffered injury, countless residents of Sderot are suffering from shock, the terrorists scored a direct hit on a synagogue, approximately 10 percent of the population has been forced to flee, schools are closed and the Israeli government is doing very little to protect its citizens from these terror attacks.
I have always felt that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the most over-reported story in the world. Yet, if one is going to report on it, one should at least report the entire story and not only report from the Arab perspective.
Josh Baker, Bangkok, Thailand