Published: Thursday, 15th January, 2009 10:25am

Not asking the right questions

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WE rely on journalists to ask the questions that we, the audience, would wish to ask.

The crisis over Gaza and the Palestine land is no exception to this rule. Yet we have a number of questions that are not being presented to Israeli spokespersons.

On Radio 4 Today programme on Monday, Jim McNaughtie was speaking to an Israeli spokesperson. When asked about the humanitarian crisis now enfolding and the concern expressed by the aid agencies such as Christian Aid, UN and the Red Cross, his reply was that they were receiving their stories from Hamas people as they had to go through Hamas authorities to obtain this information and, as there was no independent opinion, then such information coming from these agencies could not be relied upon.

I and I am sure others, were waiting for Mr McNaughtie to remind the Israeli spokesperson that as his government had banned independent journalists from entering another sovereign state, Palestine, who can say that the information we receive from Israel is accurate?

There are other examples. The Un Fakhura school, which was bombed by Israeli jet fighters. Israel"s response was that mortars and shots were being fired from the school. This was proved to be untrue and withdrawn.

Journalism got a bad name during and after the illegal Iraq war. We, the viewers and listeners, only hope that they start to revive their reputation as fully independent sources of information.

Alex Falconer,

2 Greenacres, Kingseat.