“Dimona Operation: The Coverage of the Three Newspapers and Palestine Satellite Television”
By MIFTAH's Media Monitoring Unit
May 13, 2008

Introduction

On 4 February 2008, a Palestinian blew himself up at a commercial center in Dimona, a town in south Israel, killing himself and an Israeli woman, and wounding several others. The Israeli security shot another Palestinian to death in the same town, who according to Israeli Police, was wearing an explosive belt that he intended to detonate after the security and paramedics gathered to rescue the casualties of the first explosion.

Israeli television channels broadcast footage of the wounded Palestinian before the security shot him to death, as he was trying to detonate the explosive belt, Israelis said.

This event was covered in the Palestinian media, particularly in the three newspapers: Al-Quds, Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah and Al-Ayyam, as well as in the Palestinian Television (PBC), in varying magnitude, style and location of the news item among news coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and local developments.

The confused description of this event and the relatively conflicting phrasing between headlines and body, particularly on the identity of the implementer and even the operation itself, was a common characteristic of this media coverage.

To View the Full Report as PDF (117 KB)

http://www.miftah.org