Israeli soldier Peer Aims to Gun Down Hingis (French Open)

PARIS (AFP) - Israeli soldier Shahar Peer was one of the top marksmen in her military training and now she has Martina Hingis in her sights at the

The 19-year-old Peer knocked out Russian sixth seed Elena Dementieva 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday and faces Hingis on Sunday for a place in the quarter-finals.

Win or lose, Peer will continue to combine her tennis career with her obligation to serve two years military service with the Israeli army.

"I had to train with weapons during my two and half weeks basic training. I was one of the best in shooting. I really liked it and it was a great experience," said Peer who is the first Israeli to reach the last 16 of a Grand Slam since Anna Smashnova here in 1998.

Peer's tennis career means she can take advantage of an Israeli government programme which allows professional sportsmen and women to spend their two years national service in mundane routines.

"I have to attend four hours every day but I just work in the office, dealing with the computers and answering the phones - no guns."

Peer, the 31st seed, is one of the tour's form players having won all her three career titles in 2006 including two on clay - at Prague and Istanbul - in the run-up to the French Open.

Ironically, it was Hingis who beat Smashnova when she made the fourth round in 1998.

"It's going to be a great match," said Peer, who made the third round in 2005. "There'll be no pressure. I came here to defend my third round from last year. Now I'm in the fourth round and I just hope to keep the run going."

Her success on clay is surprising. When she was growing up, she had to compete with other players to use the meagre four clay courts which existed in the country although she was able to gain valuable experience from travelling to Europe to play and practice.

That has all paid off. As well as her wins in Prague and Istanbul, she has also won 18 matches out of 18 in the Fed Cup.

Familiarize yourself with the AFP (AGENCY FRENCH PRESSE) record with regard to Israel and Jews.

FOR EXAMPLE:

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Palestinian_Insiders.asp

COMMUNIQUE: 18 January 2005

Palestinian Insiders

AFP and AP employ reporters who also receive paychecks from the Palestinian Authority.

One of the cardinal rules of responsible journalism is the independent status of the journalist ¯ while journalists may belong to political parties, they cannot actively work for a party relevant to the sphere they cover, lest their independence and neutrality be jeopardized.

But today, the Jerusalem Post reported that two of the largest wire services ¯ Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Associated Press (AP) ¯ have employed journalists with inappropriately close ties to the Palestinian Authority. Majida al-Batsh was a Palestinian affairs correspondent for AFP for many years, while simultaneously being on the payroll of the Palestinian Authority as a reporter for the PA's official organ, Al-Ayyam.

If this is not evidence enough of impropriety at AFP, last year Batsh announced she would actually run for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority. The Post reports:

Her colleagues claim that shortly before she joined the race [for PA president], Batsh resigned from the news agency, saying she wanted to devote her time to the election campaign. However, they add, this did not prevent her from seeking the agency's help in her campaign.

"One day she showed up and asked to use the fax machine to send some documents," reports one coworker. "The agency did not object."

Batsh isn't the only AFP reporter receiving a PA salary on the side:

One of the agency's correspondents in the Gaza Strip is Adel Zanoun, who also happens to be the chief reporter in the area for the PA's Voice of Palestine radio station.

The AFP bureau chief in Jerusalem, Patrick Anidjar, refuses to discuss the issue, saying, "I don't understand why you have to have the name of our correspondents." Pressed to give a specific answer, he says: "I don't want our correspondents' names to go into print. I don't want to answer the question. What is this, a police investigation?"

Meanwhile, Muhammad Daraghmeh ¯ who turns out near-daily reports from Ramallah or Jerusalem for the Associated Press ¯ also works for the PA's Al-Ayyam, according to the Jerusalem Post (and a pro-Palestinian site).

This is the equivalent of a network's Washington correspondent getting paid on the side by the Democrats or Republicans. Imagine the scandal that would produce. Yet with their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, AFP and AP don't seem to have a problem with it.

HonestReporting has repeatedly demonstrated that the local staff employed by western news outlets contributes in no small way to the problem of anti-Israel media bias. The major media outlets rely on Palestinian cameramen and stringers to tell the tale from the West Bank and Gaza, as the Jerusalem Post reports:

AFP is not the only member of the international news media to employ "journalists" who see themselves as "foot soldiers" serving the Palestinian cause. Other parts of the foreign media frequently allow their stories to be filtered through such fixers-consultants... "I will never work on a story that defames my people or leadership," boasts a Palestinian "fixer" (mediator/guide/translator) who works on a regular basis with many foreign journalists. "It is my duty to protect my people against Israeli propaganda."

All this calls to mind the declaration by Fayad Abu Shamala, the BBC correspondent in Gaza for the past 10 years, at a Hamas rally in May 2001:

"Journalists and media organizations [are] waging the campaign shoulder-to-shoulder together with the Palestinian people."

HonestReporting subscribers are encouraged to write to Agence France-Presse, requesting clarification of its policy regarding AFP reporters working simultaneously for institutions within the Palestinian Authority.

AFP's Compounded Error

AFP publishes a factual error on a sensitive topic, then fails to issue a proper correction.

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/AFPs_Compounded_Error.asp

On Oct. 12, Agence France-Presse (AFP) ¯ one of the world's 'big three' wire agencies ¯ opened its report on the IDF's Gaza operation with this:

Israel's massive military operation into the northern Gaza Strip shows no sign of a let-up after two deadly weeks that have seen 111 Palestinians killed, mainly children, and Qassam rockets still being fired into Israeli territory.

'Mainly children' killed? The New York Times reported a short time beforehand:

In 11 days of fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have killed at least 90 Palestinians, including about 55 militants and 35 civilians, according to Palestinian hospital officials. The dead include 18 Palestinians who were 16 or younger, according to a count by The Associated Press.

So Palestinian and press sources had indicated that the vast majority of Palestinian dead were adult and/or 'militants' ¯ not, as AFP reported, children.

This isn't an insignificant detail ¯ the inaccuracy pertains to a highly sensitive issue, and was erroneously reported in the first line of AFP's dispatch. As such, it sets a condemnatory tone regarding the entire IDF anti-terror operation in Gaza.

HonestReporting spoke with the AFP news editor in Jerusalem just minutes after the error appeared. AFP's editor acknowledged the statement was wrong and said that a correction was forthcoming.

Surprisingly, AFP did not issue a correction. AFP's subsequent report on Gaza that day simply did not contain the erroneous phrase ¯ but gave no indication to local editors that the previous version was wrong and should not be published.

So the fictitious version continues to proliferate worldwide ¯ accessible on the popular YahooNews [here], and reprinted in many local newspapers (for example, here and here).

* * * In news reports, as anywhere, mistakes happen. Accepted journalistic standards dictate that in such cases, the news outlet issues a timely, prominent correction. This ensures that other news outlets avoid reprinting the fiction, and may issue corrections of their own in the event that the error was already reprinted.

By failing to issue such a correction, AFP deviated from standard journalistic procedure. In a follow-up conversation today (Oct. 14), AFP's Jerusalem news editor acknowledged to HonestReporting that 'maybe we should have done so' ¯ but does not intend to issue a proper correction.

The 'product' that any news outlet sells is its accuracy and fairness. With a mistake like this, compounded by the failure to correct the record, news consumers must wonder about Agence France-Presse's credibility in covering this conflict.

HonestReporting

When the Photo is the Story

AFP frames Sharon as villain

News photos often have more impact than the articles they accompany. Readers view the photo first, and images are all many see while flipping through the paper. Unfortunately, photojournalism on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regularly contains the same anti-Israel bias evident in print media.

One recent example: Earlier this week photojournalists were present at an Israeli cabinet meeting. Here's an AFP photo of Ariel Sharon from that event ¯ no, we didn't crop it, that's the actual 'news' photo:

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presides over the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem. (AFP)

AFP frames Sharon as scary and sinister. What other democratic world leader would receive such treatment at the other end of a photojournalist's lens?

COMMUNIQUE: 12 August 2004

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/When_the_Photo_is_the_Story.asp

4/3/2005: AFP's Anti-Israel Bias is Palpable

Little Green Footballs

http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=15306&only

The open animosity toward Israel in this uncredited Agence France Presse soccer “feature” story is quite astounding:

‘No Arabs, No Goals’: Arabs save Israel despite racist jibes.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - “No Arabs, No Goals,” crowed MP Ahmed Tibi as a second Arab-Israeli footballer smashed the ball into the back of the net, saving Israel’s World Cup prospects for a second time in less than a week.

Aping the slogan beloved of Jewish extremists, “No Arabs, no terror attacks”, midfielders Abbas Suan and Walid Badier are heros in Israel’s heavily discriminated Arab community after their prowess kept football burning bright.

Suan and Badier scored match-tying goals in back-to-back qualifier matches against Ireland and France in Tel Aviv on Saturday and Wednesday, keeping Israeli hopes alive for the 2006 German World Cup.

Overjoyed with Badier’s feats in Wednesday night’s crucial match against France, Tibi telephoned a journalist from Israel’s right-wing Maariv newspaper.

The rag thought Tibi’s slogan pertinent enough to reprint as its headline.

“All week he had been dreaming about how Abbas Suan and Walid Badier would save the homeland,” sneered a Maariv editorialist.

Israeli by nationality, Palestinians at heart, Israel’s 1.2 million Arabs, descendants of those who remained on their land after the Jewish state was created in 1948, are treated as second class citizens.

“My expression, ‘No Arabs, No Goals’, is my answer to the racists in Israel. These two goals have had more impact than all the political pontificating,” Tibi told AFP.

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