Israel puts clamp on foreign media

Israel, and its allies, are forever extolling the fact that the country is a democracy.

It all depends on what one defines as a democracy........because as the IHT reports, Israel has clamped down on the media's ability to report from Gaza:

"Like all wars, this one is partly about public relations. But unlike any war in Israel's history, in this one, the government is seeking to control entirely the message and narrative for reasons both of politics and military strategy."

And:

"There are other ways to construe the context of this conflict, of course. But no matter what, Israeli diplomats know that if journalists are given a choice between covering death and covering context, death wins. So in a war that they consider necessary but poorly understood, they have decided to keep the media far away from the death.

John Ging, an Irishman who directs operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency and entered Monday as journalists were kept out, told Palestinian reporters in Gaza that the policy was a problem. "For the truth to get out, journalists have to get in," he said."

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