Media’s version of truth as strange as Japanese fiction

Rashomon, the Japanese movie by Akira Kurosawa, relates the story of a murder whereby four different characters give their version of what happened. Three of them claim to be the killer, placing themselves in the centre of the story and provide first-person eyewitness accounts of the event. Told in the form of flashbacks, their stories seem to have no bearing on reality. Rather, the characters provide personal, unconventional, and self-serving versions of the same incident.

I’ve thought a lot about this movie while monitoring coverage of the 11-day conflict and afterwards.

Journalists all have their biases. Depending on the media house they work for, such bias could either be tempered or expressed. We all know journalists who already have a jaundiced position on Israel. This latest war has simply given them new impetus to further vilify the country. They never did see a reason to provide another perspective. They won’t now.

A presenter at Power FM stated that as he equated Zionism with racism, he wouldn’t give “oppressors” a platform. Then, 702, the station that the majority of our community listen to, talked the talk but failed to walk the walk when it came to providing alternate perspectives. In spite of numerous requests, it gave the Jewish community the ultimate middle-finger when, following two short interviews with anti-Israel commentators Ronnie Kasrils and Munir Nuseibeh, it then gave a full hour to the fringe views of historical revisionist Ilan Pappe. It did, later, do an interview with Daniel Pomerantz, the chief executive of Honest Reporting, who was given 12 minutes to state Israel’s case.

The problem with this one-sidedness is that it embellishes an already demonised view of Israel, to the extent that their narrative eventually has no bearing on reality. Like the characters in Rashomon, the journalists are acting in a self-serving manner. Journalists and columnists are encouraged to have an opinion, but their opinions shouldn’t override their obligation to fair-minded, independent journalism.

Let’s now look at news coverage. In an ideal world, it shouldn’t matter what your news source is, as all news should be factually correct. Sadly, this isn’t the case. Even news reporters and stations have their bias. The other day, 702 lifted its report on the conflict from Al-Jazeera. The report was so distorted, it took me a couple of hours to try and verify it. I couldn’t. Fact-changing shouldn’t be our job. That should be done by the media. Our job as the Jewish organisations should be to ensure that the media provides both sides of story.

The loss of life and the trauma of this latest Israeli war with Gaza is tragic for Palestinians and Israelis. There does, however, need to be an acknowledgement that there are (at least) two sides to this story. This is in the interests of the media profession, which has an obligation to ensure its listeners are fully informed. We all know that, as much as the war is being fought on the ground, it’s also being fought in the realm of public opinion. It’s not necessary for the media to endorse Israel, but if they wish to be credible, it’s necessary for them to ensure that they give both sides of the conflict.

In spite of what I have described above, it’s not all bad. In fact, there’s plenty of good. This time round, more media (print and electronic) have been scrupulous in approaching the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and the South African Zionist Federation for comment, which we have readily supplied. To date, “our side” has appeared more than 40 times, be it in print, online, or radio/TV.

Furthermore, where we have had the opportunity to debate, we have, in fact, won. Olga Meshoe Washington wiped the floor with her opponent from the Al-Jamai Party in a debate on Newzroom Afrika (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-tWZCctmtY); Rolene Marks exposed her opponent from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) organisation as a name-calling bully in her interview with him on Channel Africa; Zev Krengel rattled his BDS opponent in a debate with him on SAFM (https://iono.fm/e/1038530); and on eNCA, Avrom Krengel showed up his opponent from the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (https://youtu.be/KJoPEkXLigw). There’s more.

The Citizen came out with an editorial (https://citizen.co.za/news/opinion/opinion-editorials/2498678/israel-palestine-conflict-we-wont-pick-sides-in-our-reporting/) stating that it wouldn’t pick sides on the conflict and would report on the facts as it saw it. This is what our media should be – and many are – doing.

We will continue to strive to develop relationships with media, we’ll continue to monitor and engage them, and we’ll do our best to ensure that they present balance on the Middle East conflict. Ultimately, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shouldn’t be used by self-serving journalists at the expense of the truth as if it were simply a Japanese movie (no matter how good it is), in which the truth is simply unobtainable.

• Charisse Zeifert is the head of communications for the SAJBD.