New York Times Restricts Language on Israeli Aggression in Gaza

Date: 17 April 2024 - 21:57

News ID: ۱۲۶۳۲۷

NEW YORK (Dispatches) – An online American investigation publication has uncovered that The New York Times has issued directives to its reporters and journalists covering the Zionist regime’s onslaught in the Gaza Strip regarding language use, urging them to restrict terms like “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing.”
Additionally, they are instructed to refrain from using the phrase “occupied territory” when referring to Palestinian lands occupied by Israel.
The Intercept obtained an internal memo from The New York Times, revealing further instructions to avoid the term “Palestine” except in rare cases. The memo, authored by Times standards editor Susan Wessling, international editor Philip Pan, and their deputies, also discourages the use of “refugee camps” to describe areas in Gaza settled by displaced Palestinians.
The United Nations recognizes these areas as refugee camps that house hundreds of thousands of registered refugees.
The memo “offers guidance about some terms and other issues we have grappled with since the start of the conflict in October.”
Several Times staffers told The Intercept that the memo proves the paper follows Israeli narratives.
“It’s the kind of thing that looks professional and logical if you have no knowledge of the historical context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” said a Times newsroom source, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, of the Gaza memo.
“But if you do know, it will be clear how apologetic it is to Israel,” the source added.
The Intercept writes that the memo presents an internal window into the thoughts of Times international editors.
The memo was first distributed to Times journalists in November.  It has been regularly since then.
The regime began the genocidal campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Israel has killed at least 33,800 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, since.