The release of seven Israeli hostages on Sunday January 19 and Saturday January 25, 2025 in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, led to sometimes media coverage misleading on the part of certain media in France.
Several newspapers, including The World, The Parisian et South West had thus failed to specify that the released Palestinian prisoners had, for some, been convicted of terrorist acts, thus seeming to establish a parallel between the innocent Israeli hostages and victims of a pogrom, detained in Gaza by Hamas terrorists and the prisoners security guards held by Israel.
The National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA) issued a press release on January 25, 2025, in which it denounced what it considers to be “partial and biased” media coverage of the release of four Israeli hostages by France Info .
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This press release is as follows:
“The BNVCA expresses its indignation at the partial and biased presentation of a news flash broadcast by France Info, evoking the release of 200 ‘Palestinian hostages’ against 4 Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hamas since 2023.
This way of presenting the facts reflects an unworthy bias on the part of a public media, which contributes to misinforming and manipulating public opinion. By assimilating Palestinian detainees – most of them involved in terrorist acts – to Israeli civilian hostages, France Info trivializes the crimes of Hamas and diverts attention from the reality: that of a terrorist group which acts with a logic of violence and hatred.
We recall that this type of discourse, carried by certain media, fuels a harmful climate in France, promotes the rise of anti-Semitism and demonstrates a worrying complacency towards jihadism. In these troubled times, public media have a moral and ethical responsibility: to provide truthful and balanced information, without giving in to the sirens of propaganda.
The BNVCA calls on the competent authorities to look into the responsibility of these media in the outbreak of anti-Semitism in France. We also ask France Info and all public media to review their editorial approach in order to guarantee impartial and respectful treatment of the facts.
-We remain mobilized to defend truth and justice in the face of all forms of disinformation. »
Saturday evening, after Israel’s release of 200 Palestinian prisoners, BFMTV also spoke of “Palestinian hostages”.
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