Journalism in a Minefield

07/29/2014 - 11h48

One of the thorniest topics in journalism, the Israel-Palestine conflict, is practically the only topic in international news that is capable of awakening opinions and stirring up debates in Brazil.

When there is, as now, a worsening of hostilities, it increases pressure on the newsroom and complaints about an imbalance in coverage, brandished indistinctly by both sides.

There were many in recent days. A cartoon about dead children, the headline over the record number of Israeli soldiers killed, leaving a fine line on the much bigger number of victims in Gaza, the headline on the website that said Israel massacred Palestinians: everything enters the line of fire.

Some complaints were right, others not, but that doesn't matter much; reason is always the first victim of a long conflict. They are not Folha's problems, but rather, the world's.

On average, the newspaper has had correct coverage, which improved sensibly starting Wednesday (July 23), with the arrival of a special correspondent, who knows the region well.

Any conflict requires caution in reporting, but the Israel-Palestine situation has a complicating factor: it is so overwhelming and asymmetrical between the two sides that the mere attempt to deal with the problem impartially is intolerable for the reader who is engaged - in the end, how is it possible to be impartial when a rich, well-armed nation is fighting against another so proletariat and impoverished?

By this same logic, it is desirable - or "morally just" - that everyone put themselves in the place of the weaker side. Governments even do this; those trying to report the news impartially can't fall into this trap.

Readers often forget that newspapers don't speak to an ideologically homogeneous public, because it does not exist. There is dissent and divergent opinion in Gaza or Israel. It's the job of the press to be a source of information at least reliable for the majority.

In a minefield of nationalism, compassion and ideology, doing this without slipping is nearly impossible. Like everyone else, journalists also are subject to the effects of the news that they (re)produce. Avoiding contamination of the work by the subjective requires a daily search for the most neutral language.

The International Press Institute (IPI), an organization headquartered in Austria, decided to translate this difficulty into a little guide called "Use With Care: A Reporter's Glossary of Loaded Language in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict."

It's a manual with the terms most used to report the conflict, avoiding linguistic traps that could incite hatred or perpetuate stereotypes.

Written by six professionals who work in the region, the trilingual guide (English, Arabic and Hebrew) can be downloaded at the site freemedia.at.

Reading it is useful not only for journalists or those interested in the conflict: the entries give a sample about how easy it is to cement bricks to the wall of incomprehension between the two peoples. All it takes is one wrong word.

The airport imbroglio

The headline last Sunday (July 20): "Minas builds airport on land of Aécio's uncle" (referring to the state of Minas Gerais, where Aécio Neves is a senator and former governor). This series of news reports provoked a lot of controversy.

Aécio Neves asserts that it's not correct to say the project was built on his uncle's land, since the area was expropriated before the auction. The argument is technically correct: once expropriation was decreed, the land was taken over by the state.

But it's not enough to invalidate the statement; that technicality can't overcome the fact that the airfield is in an enclave where his uncle has a ranch.

I believe that the teaser on the front page had other problems. As I observed in the internal critique, the information that the area was expropriated for an amount that his own relative contests appears only in the penultimate paragraph. The report still raised doubts about the technical criteria for the choice of the location, but did know how to describe what they were.

The ombudsman's page on the website published the entire message sent by the Change Brazil coalition supporting Neves for the presidential nomination of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB).

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Also read the clarification by the Justice Ministry about the report "Minister acted in concert with USA to help Maluf," published Thursday, July 24 (referring to Paulo Maluf, former governor and mayor of São Paulo).

Translated by JOHN WRIGHT

Read the article in the original language