Israeli Journalist claims Almanar Television Channel twisted their words
I have received an email from Amir Tibon, one of the two Israeli journalists who filmed a documentary in the Syrian city of Idleb, accusing the pro Iranian, Almanar Television Channel of not telling the truth.
{jcomments on}I have tweeted what has been recycled online about their task, after reading a report by Zuhair Androwse about them on London based, Alquds Alarabi newspaper. Alalam TV channel as well reported that the Israeli journalists came to help the Syrian Free Army and that the SFA hosted them for the second time. The Alalam news anchor said that the two Israeli journalists were welcomed by the SFA even though they knew about their Israeli ID. The translated interview claimed clearly that the journalist has said that they entered Syria with the help of the SFA.
On the 17th December I have tweeted the interesting news as follows:
‘Itay Angel and Amir Tibon #Israeli #journalists filmed & aired documentary N Idlib with the help and protection of #Syrian opposition’
Today I have received from Amir Tibon, one of the two journalists the following email explaining that both Almanar TV station in Lebanon fabricated lies about the trip of the two journalists to Syria. Amir claims they entered Syria alone as foreign journalists, without the help of the SFA and the Syrian Army never asked about their nationality.
I am not sure if the interview broadcasted on Alalam TV was mistranslated, or deliberately twisted. The fact remains that investigative journalists care about the ethics of their profession and their professional reputation. For that reason I feel it is my duty to copy the full email as it has arrived from Amir Tibon, for the audience to judge by themselves whether the report was manipulated deliberately by Almanar television channel, the Israeli radio and Alalam television channel, or the mentioned broadcasters unintentionally misinterpreted what the journalists have said. The fact that both Channels are pro-Iranian makes the answer of extreme importance.
This is Amir’s email
Dear ms. Tamimi
I am one of the two israeli journalists who were inside syria last week. i saw your twit about us being smuggled in by the fsa. Since you run a respected media watchdog, I wanted to inform you that this rumor is completely false, and based entirely on a story published by almanar, a station as biased as the israeli government radio.
we got in totally independently, with no assistance from the fsa. We payed a smuggler from turkey and made our way in. no one inside, not even one man or woman, knew who we are.
People we met inside were very media-friendly and didn’t really ask who we are, the very idea that an israeli journalist would risk his life to tell their story probably never even crossed their minds. Had they known we probably would be dead now. True, some of them said surprising things about Israel including that amazing Sharon quote, but all the time they thought they were talking to Europeans.
We stated these facts in our report, but almanar for propaganda reasons chose to ignore it and twist it the other way around…
As manager of a respected media watchdog, i think you ought to check your facts better and not to state propaganda as news. too many journalists, including many israelis, do exaxctly that.
I hope you will find the courage to, after reading my message, correct the facts on your feed. I respect your work fighting islamophobia in the news, and in fact, our aim in entering syria was to do the same thing, show our viewers that while some of our syrian neighbors are indeed radical islamists, many others are ordinary men and women fighting for freedom and dignity. we have been doing this for years in gaza, the west bank and all across the arab world (just ask prominent palestinian journalists about itai anghel) and almanar is not going to stop us now.
Thanks for reading this.
Amir Tibon
