Lebanon

20 August 2006

The toll that the conflict took on Lebanese media

As an uneasy truce prevails on the Israel-Lebanon front, it is time for the Lebanese media to take stock of the situation. The month-long operations saw the destruction of basic infrastructure and the imposition of a land, sea and air embargo leading to a massive drop in advertising, distribution problems, and fears of paper supply shortages. SCOURING FOR NEWS: Lebanese civilians collect...

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14 August 2006

Magnum photographer Paolo Pellegrin injured in Lebanon

Photojournalist Paolo Pellegrin of Magnum Photos was one of several people injured in an Aug. 6 missile attack in southern Lebanon. Pellegrin and reporter Scott Anderson were traveling together in Tyre on assignment for The New York Times Magazine. They were treated for their injuries and now are back at work in Lebanon. "They're in Beirut. They're fine," says Kathy Ryan, director of photography...

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12 August 2006

How Hezbollah fights the media war

The mainstream media has had a hard time lately in its coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah war, as the unofficial media—the bloggers—have been busy pointing out. The sharp-eyed blogger Charles Johnson spotted how a Reuters photo showing burning buildings had been photoshopped. The smoke rising from a damaged building, and the building itself, were copied over the photo—making the result of Israeli...

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5 August 2006

Israelis and Arabs rely on discrete media specific to their cultures

JERUSALEM - In a land of divided faiths and loyalties, people have been separated at times by walls, by checkpoints and now, in time of war, by sound bites. Every hour on the hour, Israeli Jews in this ancient city tune their radios to government-run broadcasts about the battle against Hezbollah, a radical Shiite Muslim group, in Lebanon. At night they turn to three Hebrew-language television...

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2 August 2006

Reporter sees no choice but to help in Lebanon as ceasefire expires

AITARUN, Lebanon - We reached this demolished village by following a bulldozer with a Hezbollah driver plowing away the rubble blocking the road. Minutes after our convoy of five press cars rolled into town, women, children, elderly men and disabled people began emerging from the ruins, pleading for escape from the bombing. Their desperation to flee the war zone as the clock ticked down on Israel...

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2 August 2006

Photojournalists rescue trapped civilians in Lebanon

A group of journalists traveling together in southern Lebanon, including several photographers, helped rescue trapped civilians this week in two towns damaged by Israeli missiles. "[There were] far too many old people and children who simply couldn't make it across the rubble," said Polaris photographer Timothy Fadek, who helped rescue people at both scenes. "We simply carried them on our backs."...

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27 July 2006

Photographers face danger, limited mobility in Lebanon

As Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon have escalated in the past two weeks, photographers flocking to cover the conflict have encountered particularly difficult and dangerous conditions. A Lebanese freelance photographer, 23-year-old Layal Nagib, died July 24 when a bomb exploded near her car during an Israeli attack on Cana, near the coastal city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. Nagib...

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24 July 2006

Two views of the same news find opposite biases

You could be forgiven for thinking the television images in the experiment were from 2006. They were really from 1982: Israeli forces were clashing with Arab militants in Lebanon. The world was watching, charges were flying, and the air was thick with grievance, hurt and outrage. There was only one thing on which pro-Israeli and pro-Arab audiences agreed. Both were certain that media coverage in...

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18 December 2005

Beirut's voice of reason returns to mourn his son

One of the world's most distinguished newspaper publishers came out of retirement last week at the age of 79. He had settled in France, a country he loved and which loved him back, only last week having bestowed on him the Légion d'Honneur for services to journalism. But duty called. He flew home and headed for his old office. Next morning he went to bury, and praise, the young man to whom he had...

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