By Ranjona Banerji
There were complaints all over social media yesterday that the western media, specifically obviously television, were not showing live coverage of proceedings at the International Court of Justice. The reason was obvious: it was the first day of the genocide hearings against Israel, in a case filed by South Africa. Only Al-Jazeera showed the arguments made by South Africa.
I went to the website of ye old faithful, the BBC. Nothing in the first few news items. You had to go to the Israel-Gaza section to find story number 3: “What is the genocide case against Israel?”. Mass looting in Papua New Guinea and an attack on a TV station in Ecuador got more prominence in the “watch/listen” segment of the website.
Obviously, this is not full-on live coverage. It is just about a passing nod to a very important message from the rest of the world to the powerful and rich west and to Israel. And er, how many journalists killed by Israeli fire since October 7? Aah yes, about 79 according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. How many journalists killed in the attack by gunmen in Ecuador. I think the number appears to be zero, as per news reports.
Let us assume I am being unfair to the BBC. So I went to CNN. Here there was a little more on offer. The case itself, people for and against. Not just a random explainer for people who have just returned from their cave holidays.
But not blanket news coverage either.
I have picked these two because they are the two most widely watched international news channels the world over.
Here is a link therefore to Al Jazeera and its explainer. Remember, Al Jazeera covered the proceedings live all of Thursday, January 11:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/11/day-one-of-the-icj-genocide-hearing-against-israel-key-takeaways
The Indian news media, print and digital, also covered the proceedings at The Hague.
Most of the western media has found itself a new target so that it can further ignore Israel’s war crimes – US and UK attacks on Houthis in the Red Sea:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/11/uk-us-strikes-houthi-yemen-red-sea?CMP=twt_b-gdnnews
Everywhere in these powerful nations and their powerful mouthpieces, the levels of hypocrisy just keep rising. The Palestinians are barely human, Iranians are borderline humans, the rest of us need to stay within our tribal lines and behave as we are told to. The same rules do not obviously apply. When some US politician currently in power says “there will be consequences”, the media shivers in excitement and anticipation. When a Houthi leader says the same thing, there are shudders of rage and disgust.
The number of Palestinians dead are around 25000 – since October 7 – from Israeli attacks. The Houthis have attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea, particularly those carrying weapons to Israel. The number of casualties – 10 Houthis.
And yet, we have the news presented to us by these trusted news sources from only one angle, with a bare nod to the whole picture.
In journalism lectures, you will often here about the need for objectivism as well as the need for “both sides” to be represented. You can look at these truisms in a number of ways. Reporting could tell you what is happening, minus any bias. Reportage could tell you what is happening, plus a little extra detail to give the reader or listener both colour and context. Analysis could tell you why and what and how. Opinion is what it is.
How the reader or listener understands these terms, and how the doing, as opposed to the definition, can be rigged, is how the consumer is fooled or lulled by the slant of information provided.
The first style of reporting is the most boring and cannot sustain the needs of television. Which requires drama and mostly melodrama. Reportage requires longform television, which only committed viewers will watch. Analysis can also by the nature of the medium be short and therefore incomplete. And opinion is the high decibel allegations which Indian television has perfected as a form of deception, incitement and propaganda.
And, it now appears, international TV is really pretty good at all that too.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.