C. Donald Bostrom is a Swedish journalist well known for publication of pro-Palestinian books and articles that generally slander Israel and it's citizens while hiding under the shield of Swedish press freedom laws , well known for being the freest in the world . He has been active in his quest to defame Israel for decades and still , the "horrible oppressors and murderers" have extended press credentials to him time and again until now . Now what has this cat done to offend the Israeli state? He published an article claiming that the IDF steals organs from dead or dying Palis to distribute to their own . This runs along the same lines as the ridiculous claims that Matza is made from the blood of Christians but the difference is , this man is passing his suppositions off as fact to the International media and people are believing it .
Bostrom himself admits that he has no proof of this and that his article is based on accusations of the families of a few dead militants whom the IDF admits were autopsied after their deaths . The article title "Our Sons Are Being Stripped of Their Organs" was meant to incite hatred against Israelis and by extension Jews , who are much-maligned in Sweden . Here's a snippet from the article :
“We know that the need for organs in Israel is large, that an extensive illegal organ moving is ongoing and has been for a long time, that it is done with the blessing of the authorities, the senior doctor at the major hospital is involved, as well as officials at various levels. And we know that the Palestinian young men disappeared, they were back five days later in secrecy at night, sewn up,”
Now , Swedish press and government is actively anti-Israeli and claims that Mr. Bostrom has the absolute freedom to write and have published whatever he wishes which leads me to the Question - Is press freedom limited to publication of facts or should any and all opinions be broadcast ? Should Holocaust deniers and genocidal pundits be free to say what they wish , whenever they wish ? And if there is a line , where does it lie ?
What's YOUR take?
This dude doesn't sit well with me. Having graduated from journalism in college.. this goes against basically every principle I was taught. From the VERY first day, it is drilled in to your head that TRUTH is the basis of all journalism. an unbiased, non-opinionated (unless of course it is an op-ed piece) account of what is happening to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. Otherwise, it is just useless propaganda to get one's point across. Its unfortunate when his employers dont seem to care very much about this, which leads me to believe they have their own agenda as well. Once this happens, the real reporting is basically down the toilet
ReplyDeleteWhile I lying in advertising is fairly cut & dry illegal, I know in the case of slander you have to prove the person is intentionally lying and not just delusional. This is actually an issue with regards to people like Bill O'reiley because, since he is so inconsistent with what he says, bringing a slander case against him is extremely difficult.
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