STOP INTERVIEWS WITH ISRAELI OFFICIALS, URGE JOURNALISTS

DUBAI, Jan 6 (Bernama) -- The Arab media should stop interviewing Israeli
officials who only use such opportunities to justify the ongoing Israeli
offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to a group of Jordanian media
practitioners.

They have started a campaign urging Arab media outlets to refrain from
talking to such officials, The Jordan Times reported.

According to them, serving the Palestinian cause during times of crisis was
more important than journalistic codes of conduct.

In an interview with the newspaper, former president of the Jordan Press
Association Tareq Momani criticised pan-Arab satellite channels Al Jazeera and
Al Arabiya for interviewing Israeli officials.

"Israeli officials' remarks and statements portray the victims as
criminals," he said, lambasting them for neither showing shame nor admitting
their wrongdoing.

But the Al Jazeera correspondent in Amman, Yasser Abu Hilala ,had a
different take on the matter, saying that by including the Israeli perspective,
Arab media outlets were able to "prove to the West that our cause is just".

"You can't present your own story of the struggle without showing the
other side," he was quoted as saying by the Jordanian daily.

Al Ghad newspaper journalist Majed Tobah said the Jordanian public could
receive the Israeli point of view from statements broadcast by international
news agencies, and did not need coverage from Arab media outlets.
-- BERNAMA