By Robbert van der Linde
Oct 27, 2023 at 5:01 am
Armed conflicts claim lives, including the war between Israel and Hamas. But how do you know if the reported number of victims is correct? This is an important but difficult task for journalists, experts say.
Early last week, the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza was hit by a rocket. Many media, including NU.nl, initially reported that it was an Israeli rocket attack, which resulted in five hundred fatalities. This was reported by the Ministry of Health, which falls under Hamas. The information later turned out to be incorrect, but the media had already discovered this before can know.
Hamas has been in charge of Gaza since 2007. Over the past sixteen years, the militant group frequently incorrect information spread about victims. This has been happening almost every day in recent weeks. It is an example of how parties also use information as a weapon during a war.
“The local health authorities in Gaza fall directly under the authority of Hamas,” says NU.nl foreign reporter Matthijs le Loux. “The casualty numbers usually cannot be independently confirmed. Hamas benefits directly from exaggerating those figures.”
War reporter Hans Jaap Melissen sees the same thing. “Many journalists like to attribute a fact to a government or an official body. It is sometimes forgotten that official bodies sometimes simply spread propaganda into the world. Because they have an interest in it.”
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‘The first mentioned idiotic number sticks’
On Thursday, Hamas reported that fifty hostages had died as a result of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. earlier reported the militant group states that five thousand Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war (October 7).
But according to Melissen, the rocket impact at the hospital showed most clearly the consequences of incorrect information. “There you saw that the first person to shout an idiotic number often wins. The first number becomes entrenched in the minds of the public, partly thanks to journalists who should have done their job better.”
The incorrect report that Israel bombed a hospital and caused five hundred casualties immediately led to fierce protests worldwide. Demonstrations turned into violence in several Arab countries. Palestinian, Qatari and Egyptian leaders canceled a meeting with US President Joe Biden. While Biden hoped to get a pass for humanitarian aid.
“In Gaza, the number was immediately believed, without any evidence being provided,” says Melissen. “While in the images taken immediately after the explosion, you really see a maximum of dozens of bodies. If there had been five hundred, it would have been filmed from all sides. Journalism has failed enormously here.”
Israel also does propaganda
The fact that Hamas’s messages cannot be trusted does not mean that information from Israel is reliable. “Israel also engages in propaganda. Spokespeople for the Israeli armed forces, for example, cannot be blindly believed,” says Le Loux.
“But unlike the Hamas regime, Israel is a democratic state with a functioning and critical press that does its best to verify information. Spreading outright untruths, for example by juggling death numbers, is therefore a lot more difficult.”
“Particularly during wars, parties aim to destroy the truth,” Melissen also says. “Then as a journalist you have to be on the facts as much as possible. This shows your journalistic intention: I am not here to promote any party. Sometimes journalism just counts.”
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The conflict explained
2023-10-27 03:01:00
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