Tag Archives: Monte Carlo Doualiya

MCD Interviews Abu-Fadil on Intn’l Media’s Double Standard Gaza Coverage

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International (mostly Western) media have exercised double standards in covering Israel’s war on Gaza following an attack by Hamas militants, Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil told Monte Carlo Douwaliya radio.

The media have dehumanized Palestinians and minimized the harm to which they’ve been subjected by Israel’s onslaught whereas these same outlets have exhibited sympathy towards Ukranians’ conflict with Russia, she said as the Gaza war began to unfold.

“It’s hard to ignore the blind bias favoring Israel and deafening transgressions in the media,” she said. “I’ve been in the media sphere for over 50 years and have never seen such disgraceful coverage as I’ve witnessed since the outbreak of the “Aqsa Flood” operation by Hamas and the war Israel has launched on Gaza.”

She cited, among other examples, the BBC’s reference to Hamas having “killed” 700 Israelis at a music festival in its October 7 attack whereas when Israel launched its offensive on Gaza, Palestinians “died,” as if they had collectively succumbed to a heart attack.

This reflects the higher value the BBC places on Israelis than on Palestinians, Abu-Fadil noted, adding that it was shameful.

In another example, she said CNN deleted a controversial video segment in which an Israeli army spokesman claimed during a field trip accompanying foreign journalists to the Rantissi Children’s Hospital in Gaza that Hamas had used the facility to detain Israeli hostages it had captured in its October attack.

The spokesman pointed to a handwritten paper in Arabic saying it listed the names of terrorists with their shifts in guarding the hostages, when it was clear to anybody with knowledge of the language it was a simple calendar of the days of the week.

“One of the most enthusiastic journalists eager to cover this misleading news was CNN’s international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson, who doesn’t read Arabic, so just like a parrot he repeated the Israeli tune in all ignorance and dishonesty,” Abu-Fadil said. “CNN had to delete this segment from its YouTube channel and official website and justified it by saying the report was long.”

It was a flimsy and unconvincing excuse, Abu-Fadil added.

You can hear the entire interview here [https://www.mc-doualiya.com/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%AC/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%82%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9/20231129-%D8%B3%D9%82%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B2%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D8%BA%D8%B7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9 ].

MU Director Details Media Bigotry in Ukraine War Coverage on Monte Carlo Doualiya

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Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil criticized several Western reporters’ and anchors’ bigoted coverage of the Ukraine war by describing fleeing Ukrainian refugees as more “civilized” and worthy of empathy than victims of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In an interview on Monte Carlo Doualiya radio she pointed to the egregious racist descriptions of Middle Easterners and Asians as Third World refugees accustomed to wars, making their fate more acceptable, whereas recent events in Ukraine were considered unacceptable in Europe.

Abu-Fadil monitored tweets and video clips of offensive displays and responded to several of them. The interview was a follow-up to a blogpost she wrote in which she listed several offenders, including from the American CBS News and NBC News networks, Al Jazeera English channel, Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper and ITV.

 

Monte Carlo Doualiya Interviews Abu-Fadil on Migration & Media Study

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Monte Carlo Doualiya (MCD) Radio’s Arabic service interviewed Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil on a study she conducted about coverage of migration in southern Mediterranean countries’ media that showed widened polarization between positive vs negative reporting.

Monte Carlo Doualiya logo

Abu-Fadil presented results of the study at the 4th EUROMED Migration Communicators Workshop panel in Paris in November 2021.

The event underlined the need for closer cooperation between journalists and migration-related entities to better convey the story of migrants, refugees and victims of human trafficking.

You can hear the audio clip on MCD’s “Digital Newscast” here or download it here [MCD].

Lebanese NNA Features Media Unlimited Fact-Checking Workshop

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Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) featured Media Unlimited’s workshop on fact-checking with Minister of Information Manal Abdel Samad thanking director Magda Abu-Fadil for providing dynamic, engaged and interactive coaching to 24 journalists and academics.

NNA coverage of fact-checking workshop

Abdel Samad commended Abu-Fadil for combining theory and practice in the intensive three-day training based primarily on the UNESCO handbook/course “Journalism, Fake News and Disinformation” the latter co-authored.

Abu-Fadil coached Lebanese reporters, editors, anchors and media professors on how to detect false information using case studies, exercises and various tools in combating the infodemic.

National News Agency logo

 She conducted the workshop organized by UNESCO and the Lebanese Ministry of Information in March 2021 and hosted expert Nayla Salibi from Monte Carlo Doualiya Radio to launch the training with a review of cyber security and how information disruption can cause great harm due to manipulated data.

The sessions included participants from Lebanon’s Ministry of Information and National News Agency, Saudi 24 TV channel, Kuwait TV, Lebanon’s OTV, Radio Liban, Télé Liban, LBC TV, Al Arabi Al Jadeed, Univérsité Saint Joseph and Univérsité Saint Esprit Kaslik, among others.

MU Director Trains Lebanese Media, Academics on Fact-Checking

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Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil trained Lebanese journalists and media professors on how to detect false information using case studies and various tools in combating the infodemic.

 

Fact-checking workshop for Lebanese journalists and academics

She introduced the trainees to visual illusions and misleading pictures employed to trick viewers and brought up disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines that spread virally on social media to dissuade people from being vaccinated.

She conducted the three-day workshop, organized by UNESCO and the Lebanese Ministry of Information, in March 2021, and hosted expert Nayla Salibi from Monte Carlo Doualiya Radio to launch the coaching with a review of cyber security and how information disruption can cause great harm when people fall prey to manipulated data.

Monte Carlo Doualiya’s Nayla Salibi explains online risks

 

Abu-Fadil’s training was based primarily on the UNESCO handbook/course she co-authored “Journalism, Fake News and Disinformation.”

The sessions included participants from Lebanon’s Ministry of Information and National News Agency, Saudi 24 TV channel, Kuwait TV, Lebanon’s OTV, Radio Liban, Télé Liban, LBC TV, Al Arabi Al Jadeed, Univérsité Saint Joseph and Univérsité Saint Esprit Kaslik, among others.

The participants were shown a doctored video that former U.S. President Donald Trump had re-tweeted to attack CNN by falsely claiming it was “fake news” and why critical thinking was an essential tool in combatting disinformation.

Donald Trump retweeted a doctored video to attack CNN

 

She pointed to the need for media ethics and directed them to the Ethical Journalism Network’s website that provides valuable resources in multiple languages, including Arabic.

The Ethical Journalism network is an integral part of fact-checking

Abu-Fadil broke down the various types of egregious behavior leading to mis-, dis- and mal-information and provided tips on how to avoid them while showing examples with videos that drove home the point.

She also directed their attention to less prominent cases such as satire and parody that can be mistaken for real news and lead to damaging consequences.

The participants viewed a video of on a program to detect distortions in digital photographs that was adopted by Agence France-Presse as well as a video of AFP’s active fact-checking program.

AFP’s Fact Check program

 

Abu-Fadil presented a case study of pre-digital information verification from her experience as a foreign correspondent and editor with AFP and how the principles of ensuring that information is correct had not changed but that technological tools had made it both a blessing and a curse in trying to avert information disruption.

She provided tips on how to verify user-generated content and what types of questions to ask to ascertain its veracity with several case studies to emphasize the point.

Abu-Fadil further explored the historical background of propaganda and showed a video on the meaning of this news genre.

Adolf Hitler was a master propagandist

 

The participants were briefed on Media and Information Literacy with all its sub-divisions and how journalists should become familiar with it to better understand the implications of what they produce and disseminate.

Abu-Fadil introduced them to the UNESCO and UN Alliance of Civilizations book “Opportunities for Media and Information Literacy in the Middle East and North Africa,” of which she was the key editor and key author.

The need for media and information literacy

 

She told them she was the first person to introduce the concept in Lebanon in 1998-99 through a distance-learning project with the University of Missouri School of Journalism when she headed the journalism program at the Lebanese American University.

She also discussed a paper she presented in 2007 at the UN Literacy Decade conference in Doha, Qatar commissioned by UNESCO and entitled “Media Literacy: A Tool to Combat Stereotypes and Promote Intercultural Understanding.”

TinEye reverse image search tool

Abu-Fadil presented a list of tools to detect wrong information on social media platforms, reverse imaging techniques, geolocation, weather assessment and the safe use of chat apps.

Tom Cruise deep fake video

 

She concluded with examples of “deep fake” videos featuring U.S. actor Tom Cruise and the need to combat online harassment, particularly of women.

MCD Interviews Abu-Fadil on “Fake News,” Media Literacy

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Monte Carlo Doualiya radio interviewed Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil to discuss her take on mitigating the dangers of “fake news” and how journalists should verify sources.

“Digital” show host Nayla Al Salibi dedicated a segment to Abu-Fadil’s media and information literacy chapter in the UNESCO book/course “Journalism, Fake News and Disinformation” and the tools needed to handle misleading news before it’s published.

Monte Carlo Doualiya’s “Digital” show interviewed MU director Abu-Fadil

Abu-Fadil shed light on journalists’ issues in dealing with social media and dubious platforms as well as media ethics in the digital age since photos, videos and audio content can be manipulated with ease.

She insisted the expression “fake news” should not be used since it’s been weaponized by politicians, notably U.S. President Donald Trump and others, against their adversaries.

Abu-Fadil said disinformation and misinformation in the “post-truth” and “alternative facts” age were more appropriate, depending on their respective contexts.

You can hear the interview here [ 3].