Israeli Lisa Goldman goes to Lebanon, lies about her identity, and jeoperdizes interviewee's security

Two Israeli journalists scrap ethics for scoop (Daily Star)

Jewish reporters endanger lives of Lebanese citizens interviewed under false pretences

By Nour Samaha

Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=83870

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

BEIRUT: When two Israeli re-porters entered Lebanon under false pretenses last week to conduct reports on Lebanese life a year after the summer 2006 war with Israel, they not only broke Lebanese law, but also violated codes of ethics in journalism and endangered the lives of those they interviewed, according to professors and residents who spoke to The Daily Star Monday.

Lisa Goldman and Rinat Malkes flew into Lebanon from Amman on their respective Canadian and Brazilian passports. Both Israeli citizens, both working on reports to be published in Israel - a country officially in a state of war with Lebanon - they embarked on deceiving Lebanese officials and the general public in order to get their exclusive scoops.

"The word Israel must not be mentioned in Lebanon," said Malkes in her article in the right-wing Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, describing how the two journalists cut out the labels from their clothes before arriving in Beirut to hide any Hebrew inscription that may reveal their true identities.

Once in Lebanon, the two went their separate ways - Malkes traveled to the South, while Goldman remained in Beirut.

In footage aired on Israel's Channel 10 news, Goldman showed snippets of interviews she conducted with local residents and misinformed viewers that only one small section of the southern suburbs was hit by Israel. "I particularly remember the BBC's hourly reports during the war, each one beginning with the following [paraphrased] sentence: 'As Israel continues its relentless pounding of southern Beirut ...' But according to several residents ... the Israeli air strikes were actually very much pinpointed on an area in the center of the Dahiyeh called the 'security square' - the area where senior Hizbullah leaders lived," she said on Pajamas Media.

Yet Goldman, who admitted that she never went to the southern suburbs of Beirut, failed to mention the surrounding areas that were affected, such as the bridges in the Dahiyeh that are still being repaired, local media stations, Chiyah and other neighborhoods further away from the "security square" - areas that are not known to host Hizbullah leaders.

One Lebanese who grew up in Dahiyeh and was interviewed by Goldman stated that she not only misquoted him, but deceived him from the start, supplying him with a false name and misinforming him that she was writing for a European paper as a Canadian. "She completely hid her Israeli nationality, saying she was from Vancouver, and gave me a different name from Lisa Goldman ... she also said she was writing for a European paper," he said on Monday.

The Beirut resident, who asked to remain anonymous, added: "When she wrote about me she said I had told her Israel only bombed the security square, which is wrong - I said they were hitting everything ... She also gave the impression that I talked of Israel in a good light, which is certainly not the case."

"If I'd known she was Israeli, I would've had her arrested," he added. "What she did was extremely wrong, and it could get me into a lot of trouble - she has me doing an interview on camera ... my family are extremely worried about repercussions from officials for talking to her ... But I didn't know she was Israeli."

According to Magda Abu-Fadil, the director of the journalism training program at the American University of Beirut, the mere fact that a journalist would misidentify herself or conduct an interview under false pretenses, is in itself unethical.

"In general terms, I don't think you should assume a false identity unless something like national security is involved or the public good is at stake, like saving someone's life," she said. "But this is not the case here - this situation does not fall under the category."

This point was also reiterated by Ramez Maluf, a professor of journalism at the Lebanese American University. "It is common practice for standards of journalism, where they exist, to state that reporters should not obtain information under false pretense," he said. "But that rule is broken all the time, often by invoking some higher moral objective."

"If you believe that your job is to inform your public about vital issues of interest and importance to them as best you can, then you may excuse yourself from breaking any rules," he continued. "The important issue then is whether you can actually report fairly when you do so under false pretense."

Yet the deception may have serious repercussions on those who were unwittingly taken in under false pretenses by the two Israeli journalists. "You have to ask, how did they represent themselves, and did they endanger anyone locally?" Abu-Fadil asked. "Suspicions may arise and people may not want to deal with those that were interviewed if they think they are in contact with Israelis."

Malkes' report on the South of the country painted an image of a Hizbullah-controlled area that has achieved little in terms of reconstruction since the end of the war. She begins by incorrectly stating that Hizbullah's approval was necessary to visit villages in the South, when in fact approval to visit areas in the South is not obtained through Hizbullah, but through the Lebanese Army, who have maintained control of the area since the end of the war last August.

In addition, Malkes gave the false impression that Hizbullah is in charge of the reconstruction effort in the South, citing Bint Jbeil as an example of how little had been done over the past year. "Life has not yet returned to normal," she wrote. But the Qatari mission in Lebanon is tasked with the reconstruction effort in Bint Jbeil.

"The power supply is also interrupted," she added, apparently unaware that the power cuts in the South are unrelated to the war, and have long plagued that part of the country.

The question on everybody's lips now, however, is what can be done to ensure this does not happen again? Abu-Fadil suggested a system for monitoring foreign journalists who enter Lebanon to check their backgrounds. "We don't want a police state, but by the same token, is there anything than can keep track of who these people are?" she asked. "It is much harder to do these days with new technology, but we need to be more vigilant and organized on how to deal with journalists."

Maluf added that monitoring all foreign journalists may not be necessary, but because Lebanon is currently in a state of war with Israel, there should be a monitoring system of "any and all Israeli incursions of any kind into our country," he said.

"Let them rely on the wire services" to get news from Lebanon, he added.