When it comes to news reporting on the Palestinian / Israeli conflict, Finland’s state TV/radio news agency, YLE, sometimes really sucks at it. This is just another prime example.
Israelin joukot ovat surmanneet ainakin 18 palestiinalaista Gazan kaistalla. Kuolleista valtaosa oli aseistautuneita palestiinalaistaistelijoita. Sairaalalähteiden mukaan kuolleiden joukossa on merkittävän Hamas-johtajan poika.
Translation: Massacre in Gaza / Israeli forces have killed at least 18 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The majority were armed Palestinian fighters. According to hospital sources, among the dead was the son of an important Hamas leader.
Massacre? Since when does an armed clash between two sides that involves the killing of one’s enemy in large numbers, deserve the label of “massacre”. Here is the online definition of the word. Massacre: “The act or an instance of killing a large number of humans indiscriminately and cruelly.”
These armed Palestinian terrorists were killed in an armed confrontation with Israeli forces, this does not meet the definition –in any way, shape or form– of a massacre. The Finnish journalists at the state news agency are simply parroting Palestinian propaganda. What a bunch of moronic drones. *L* KGS
Note: J’lem Post journalist, Abu Toameh shows YLE the proper way to headline the same story: PA: Gaza ‘massacre’ threatens talks. Note that Toameh shows that it is the Palestinians who are saying it was a ……massacre.
Update: After calling YLE and talking with journalist, Juha Vuohelainen, who now admits that the headline was misleading, he promised to look into it. We shall see. *L* KGS
Tundraman adds: What is interesting is also the utmost vagueness in Finnish media on the sequence of the events: YLE tells it like this: “Taistelun tuoksinassa Israelin puolella yksi ihminen kuoli” (“In the heat of the battle one person died on the Israeli side”).
In contrast, HS (Helsingin Sanomat) today first tells about the “massacre” of the Palestinians and then says that a person from Ecuador was killed ny Palestinians “later in the morning” on a kibbutz in Israel, implying that the Israelis started the “battle”.
However, while the Hufvudstadsbladet also first reports the Israeli action, it later claims that Israel’s attack was a RESPONSE to the killing of this person on the kibbutz!
And about YLE journalist Juha Vuohelainen, “who now admits that the headline was misleading” and who “promised to look into it” – the damage is already done, and nothing can take it back!
UPDATE: YLE’s headline has been changed to: Gazassa verinen yhteenotto / Bloody Confrontation in Gaza. YLE’s gate keeper must have been asleep at the switch on that one…right? *L* KGS
