In the last week, Arab Media Watch advisor Christopher Leadbeater got letters published in the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the International Herald Tribune.
Also, AMW chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi was interviewed on February 24 about prospects for Arab-Israeli peace on Pakistan's ARY TV channel alongside Israeli journalist Jerry Lewis, Pakistani senator Iftikhar Ahmed and a former member of Israel's parliament.
Leadbeater's letter in the Guardian, February 28, 2005:
As the Eason Jordan saga plays itself out (The rise of the right, February 21), few can believe that the apology he made was anything but the result of intense pressure, perhaps amounting to fear. It is very unhealthy. He clearly did not say what he said by mistake, and presumably he felt, as many of us feel, that the facts amply supported the allegations he made.
This is a very testing time for international media. Not only are journalists who fall foul of certain governments being slaughtered but those few willing to tell it how it is are being compelled to change their stories or be silent. In the last analysis, the people and the media have strong mutual interests. In what we regard as the world's two major "democracies", the checks and balances built into the system have fallen apart. In both countries the major political opposition is more or less neutered, so anxious not to be called unpatriotic that they support the illegal policies of those in power. In US, Congress is so corrupt that it regularly passes resolutions supporting Israel with majorities reminiscent of Communist and Fascist states. Again, in both countries, the media is under enormous pressure from owners and advertisers to support government policies. Now, those who resist seem at risk.
In the UK, the only heads that have rolled following the illegal invasion of Iraq were media heads prepared to call it how it was. There have been similar examples in the US but more frighteningly there have been significant numbers of journalists killed and abused by US soldiers. It is only the media which stands between the governments and the people. The governments will be responsible to the people's demands provided these are clear enough. But unless the media fulfils its function the people are not going to be aware of enough reality to resist.
Leadbeater's letter in the IHT, February 26, 2005:
In vain, I searched Roger Cohen's article "Despite the folly of it, Iraq was the right war" (Globalist, Feb. 23) for some sense of balance. Of course, Saddam Hussein was a dictator who carried out many crimes against the Iraqi people. But the war was a gross breach of international law that involved the slaughter of 100,000 Iraqis and the destruction of much of the country.
It is a somewhat blinded man who can claim that the chaos and living hell that is now Iraq has made all that pain and suffering worthwhile. The right war for what?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/02/25/opinion/edlet.html
Leadbeater's letter in the Telegraph, February 21, 2005:
Sir, George W Bush's recommendation that the EU and America should work together to promote freedom and democracy (News, Feb 19) is completely meaningless, given that our concepts of freedom and democracy are so different.
Europe doesn't believe that America has some divine mission to rule the world, to make decisions for others. It doesn't see international law and the Geneva Conventions as applying only to others.
For Europe, democracy means that we all decide together - not that America does what it likes, ignoring the international community on global warming, on the International Criminal Court and more. Our histories may be similar, but our aims are different.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/02/21/dt2101.xml