“It's the responsibility of the media to present facts accurately and in a balanced manner”

WASHINGTON, June 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States Friday, June 21 frowned on Arab information ministers launching a multimillion-dollar anti-Israel media campaign to bar interviews with Israeli officials from Arab television, saying it would prolong the Middle East crisis, news agencies reported.  

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, noting that the ministers had discussed the draft proposal in Cairo this week, said Washington took a dim view of any effort to interfere with the media's responsibility to present fair, balanced and accurate information.

"We believe it's the responsibility of the media to present the facts accurately and in a balanced manner, allowing for a frank and open exchange of ideas,” he told reporters.

"Especially during this particularly difficult period in the Middle East, it's vitally important that all media act responsibly, avoid words or images that incite or praise violence and that demonize and stereotype the other side," Boucher said.

"Such material helps prolong the tragic violence and suffering that we're all trying to end," he said, recalling that U.S. officials have long called on their Arab counterparts to act against anti-Israel invective contained in the official and semi-official Arab media.

Boucher said the United States would watch closely to see if the ministers came to a final decision on the matter, but hinted Washington would lobby against something that looked like the current proposal.

"If and when the Arab information ministers announce an agreed-upon plan, we may have more say on the matter but whatever they do, we would hope that they would incorporate the ideas of fairness, balance and not inciting violence," he said.

The purpose behind the Arab information ministers meeting in Cairo Wednesday, June 19, was to discuss a 20-million-dollar media campaign to counteract "Israeli and U.S. portrayal of the Palestinian national struggle as unjustified terrorism."

The campaign also plans to gather evidence of Israeli war crimes in order to put Israeli generals, officers and settlers can be put on trial before international courts.

Ministers from 13 Arab states -- Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen -- took part in the one-day meeting at the Cairo headquarters of the 22-member Arab League.

The other members of the organization were represented by lower ranking information officials, but Qatar, known for its strong relations with Israel, did not attend.

The meeting, chaired by Syrian Information Minister Adnan Omran, discussed a project "calling on Arab states to launch a media campaign" that "addressed to international public opinion," at a cost of 20 million dollars.

He said this project is badly needed to counteract "Israeli and U.S. attempts to portray the Palestinian national struggle as unjustified terrorism."

The draft also calls on "Arab media not to allow Israeli officials to address Arab public opinion in their attempt to justify aggression."

The resolution embarrassed Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite channel. Qatar has so far refused to forbid Al-Jazeera from airing the comments of Israeli officials on the Middle East conflict.

The draft project urges Arab states to "speed up the creation of an Arab satellite television channel to address international and American public opinion."

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa warned that Israel is preparing to launch on June 25 an Arabic-speaking channel to address Arab public opinion.

"We all know how much falsification should be expected" from the Israeli channel, Mussa said.

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