09 February, 2009

Media in bed with Mubarak

Jeffrey Fleishman notes the detention of Philip Rizk at the LA Times Middle East blog. Judging from the comments on the blog, I'm not the only one to ask myself why someone would decide to illustrate this article with a picture of a militant Palestinian (presumably) carrying a gun?

Words cannot even begin to describe how inappropiate this is, considering that the article is about a peace activist and writer - and arguably one of the most friendly and peaceful personalities I've ever met - who was just kidnappad mafia-style and taken to a secret location where he risk torture, instead of being where he should be: finishing his documentary film about non-violent resistance against the occupation in Palestinian villages!

It all makes sense, however, when you read this sentence in the article itself: "The Egyptian government fears opening the border would ease pressure on the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza and supports exporting radical Islam across the region." Now, you can say a lot about Hamas, but "exporting radical Islam across the region"? When? How? Where? The Egyptian government could save a lot of the money it spends on propaganda if LA Times reporters are going to do it for them.

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