By David Singer —— Bio and Archives November 13, 2017
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“[t]he graphic did not represent a map of the Middle East but a visual representation of the countries relevant to the story”.Media Watch presenter Paul Barry justified Israel’s omission from the map:
“But two days is obviously an age in the Mail’s hectic newsroom. And clearly no one bothered to watch the ABC report. Because if they had they would have known that the nations in blue are where this law has been abolished. And the nations in yellow are those that still have it on their books. And Israel was not on the map because it never had the offending statute."
“With regards to the original image used on The World, we have sought additional information from ABC News who have advised that unfortunately due to human error the yellow shading covered a larger area than where the laws are applicable. But as marry-your-rapist laws have never been enacted in Israel, Israel was not labelled on the map so as not to mislead viewers that Israel had or has any such laws. However, this was not an implicit political comment or any attempt to delegitimise Israel.”AACA determined:
“Within the context of the Media Watch segment which especially sought to provide context to the Daily Mail’s article, Audience and Consumer Affairs are satisfied that viewers would not be materially misled by the inclusion of the graphic from The World. Nevertheless, we have noted your concerns and made them available to the program, ABC Television and ABC News for their consideration.”Challenging AACA’s determination as “perplexing” – I responded:
“The yellow shading in covering a larger area than where the laws are applicable was not accurate because:Surely this admitted "human error" needs to be publicly acknowledged by the ABC and a public correction or clarification issued. I would further submit that this human error comes within part 2.1 of the ABC's editorial standards - which you do not appear to have even considered:
- the yellow shaded area mistakenly included Israel and
- the yellow shaded area mistakenly identified and clearly labelled "Israel" as "Palestine"
"2.1 Make reasonable efforts to ensure that material facts are accurate and presented in context"
“We have nothing further to add to our substantive response.”This dismissive response coming from the annual $1 billion taxpayer-funded ABC is not acceptable. . Reprimanding those responsible for this “human error” and those who sought to publicly justify Israel’s exclusion from the map using artificially-contrived reasons is surely warranted – particularly as the ABC has been recently accused of anti-Israel bias. Media Watch certainly needs to issue a clarification and apology.
David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com