The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) is seething because today is a day ending in ‘y’ over the suspension of a journalist “for a tweet he made almost 10 years ago”
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network is deeply concerned at the biased and flawed process by SBS Management that saw renowned journalist Essam Al Ghalib suspended, pending investigation.
APAN unequivocally supports Essam, and all journalists who pursue truth with integrity on Palestine in the face of targeted campaigns and harassment from lobby groups. We call on SBS Management to dismiss its investigation.
“At a time when Israeli forces and settlers have killed more Palestinians in the West Bank in one month than at any other time in the past few decades, worrying about a journalist’s tweet from 10 years ago is a callous distraction,” APAN President Nasser Mashni said.
“As Palestinians, we rely on journalists to hold Israel to account because our governments certainly don’t.
“It is not for any Zionist group to determine what is proper journalism; this is the role of regulators, media unions, and networks themselves.
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Essam Al Ghalib was suspended by SBS and is currently under investigation for a tweet he made almost 10 years ago, prior to his employment with the media organisation.
Naturally, APAN are not being truthful. This is not about one tweet made ten years ago.
“In light of some tweets published between 2014 and 2015, which we’ve become aware of, he [Al-Ghalib] has been stood down from all duties, pending an internal investigation,” the SBS spokesperson said.
One tweet 10 years ago is not the same as multiple tweets up to less than eight years ago.
And while it is true these were “prior to his employment with the media organisation,” they speak to his ability to report objectively and truthfully. And he had worked as a journalist prior to these tweets.
Honest Reporting uncovered the tweets, which you can see do not just indicate a level of bias against Israel that is untenable for a journalist, but one of them – claiming we utilized concentration camps – reveals antisemitism:
🇦🇺 @SBSNews readers: Do you trust @EssamAlGhalib2 to report on the Arab-Israeli conflict without bias?
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 31, 2023
Essam Al-Ghalib also described the Jewish state as "bloody murderers," called for the arrest of @Netanyahu, and claimed Israel put Palestinians in "concentration camps." https://t.co/YV829BXXKH pic.twitter.com/W0M52jZtHO
(2/2) pic.twitter.com/2fWbN1ensn
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 31, 2023
As to APAN’s statement that “It is not for any Zionist group to determine what is proper journalism; this is the role of regulators, media unions, and networks themselves” – isn’t that exactly what SBS is doing now that they suspended him? They are investigating his tweets and presumably determining whether he can function as an objective journalist conforming to their code of journalistic ethics.
It is uncanny how lying is invariably involved when the palestinian Arab cause or someone involved with it is concerned. Why is that?
