Monday, July 23, 2007
Just a reminder...at Charles Levinson's blog, in a post centered on Lisa Goldman's Lebanon jaunt, this little bit of reminder on access journalism and how things work:
...Journalists absolutely do need Hezbollah approval to report from any of the interior villages, like Bint Jbeil, in the south. Read this July 10 posting on McClatchy journalist Hannah Allam’s blog. To report from the south you need 1) A Lebanese government press ID, 2) the permission of the Lebanese army, and 3) Hezbollah approval. The first two are easy, the last one, increasingly difficult (thanks in part to Rinat and Lisa). I’ve heard from correspondents who were there as recently as last week that you can get as far east as Qana, but after that there are Hezbollah checkpoints and Hezbollah minders everywhere. If you don’t have the proper Hezbollah approvals, they simply don’t let you speak with anyone. Friends of mine came back thoroughly frustrated with Hezbollah...
Goldman's visit to Lebanon caused a real flap.
People were appalled that (gasp) Israelis came to Lebanon and (gasp) Talked To People.
The worst part of it is, the Lebanese Daily Star claims they may inadvertently have put their interviewees in danger, simply by having made contact with them.
So rather than lecture the people who might actually be dangerous the Lebanese Daily Star lectures the journalists, accusing them of violating ethics to get a scoop:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=83870
And then, the last kick in the teeth, they advise us to rely upon mainstream media reports from Lebanon! As if anybody who wasn't asleep last summer isn't aware of the fallibility of said reports - including posed and doctored photographs, but also in the background the fact that Hezbollah was stage-managing all of the journalism including TV shows, held reporters' passports - and of course there's the notorious death and injury toll among Lebanese journalists - is it any wonder independent journalists want to see for themselves?