Monday, September 27, 2004
Activist? Operative?
Following the death of Izz El-Deen Khalil in Damascus, the BBC has an article referring to him as an "activist" and describe him as a "senior figure in [Hamas'] military wing". It's also interesting to note that they don't once mention terrorist activities in their profile of him. Meanwhile, the AP sees him as an "operative", whereas Reuters goes for "leader", and the New York Times favours "official". Meanwhile, one news corporation is getting it right, and pissing off Reuters in the process -
By changing occurences of the word "fugitive", "militant" or "operative" to "terrorist" - in line with the sensible reasoning that a "terrorist" is someone who kills civilians - the Associated Press believes CanWest is being "unbalanced, unfair [and] inaccurate." Right.
According to Mr. Schlesinger, members of Reuters' sales staff in Canada have asked CanWest to remove writers' names to conform to its guidelines for the use of "terrorist." Reuters has also asked that CanWest add its name to that of Reuters as the source of revised articles and to display that information only at the end of the articles. Alternatively, Reuters suggests that its name not be used at all.
By changing occurences of the word "fugitive", "militant" or "operative" to "terrorist" - in line with the sensible reasoning that a "terrorist" is someone who kills civilians - the Associated Press believes CanWest is being "unbalanced, unfair [and] inaccurate." Right.
