Photographer Magnus Johansson has taken issue with this post of mine in which I bemoaned the “art of alleged.” He writes in the comments to the post:
As I was the one taking the photo mentioned above and i can confirm that it was Israeli undercover forces that killed him. I was on the spot together with other journalist less than 5 minutes after the ambush. When you read captions to pictures like this you can be sure that the photographer on the spot sees whats going on and will put it accuratley in the caption. If you see the rest of the pictures from the same event you would see how Israeli soldiers arrest the other two militants (one was dragged naked and half dead around on the street by Israeli soldiers). The reson why it say “alleged Palestinian militants” is that 2 of them was unarmed and that they might have been just a driver or relative to the militants. Since we did not have the name of all 3 involved in the incident it was better not to say that they all are militants.
Magnus Johansson
That’s all well and good Magnus, but being on the spot minutes after the “ambush” is not being an eyewitness to it. Furthermore, the caption to the photo makes it clear you were relying on palestinian eyewitnesses.
Palestinian medics tend to the body of an alleged Palestinian militant killed by an undercover Israeli army unit during an operation in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Sunday, April 23, 2006. Israeli undercover soldiers killed one Palestinian militant and arrested two others, Palestinian sources said. According to Palestinian sources the undercover unit ambushed the vehicle in the center of the town. The Israeli military was yet to make comment. (AP Photo/Magnus Johansson-MaanImages)
Not only that, but if they were “undercover”, how can you be sure that they were Israeli forces, and not a rival palestinian terrorist organization?
I find it troubling that you are quick to give them the benefit of the doubt to the “alleged” terrorists, but not the alleged Israeli undercover soldiers. How can you be sure they killed the terrorists? Did you see them do it? Did they tell you they did it?
Your comment just reinforces my belief that many of you in the press are not interested in fair and balanced reporting.
