As the continuing Israeli massacre of Palestinians has now entered into its second week, there has also been another battle over the media coverage of the massacre in Gaza. Indeed, when Israel started its military campaign to wipe Palestinians out of Gaza, it also started a media campaign through its lobby groups both in the West and the rest of the world including Turkey.

America’s CNN was the only TV network covering 1991 Gulf Crisis and used as a propaganda machine to justify the USA action against Iraq. The result gained was beyond the USA military success, as the world public was persuaded into believing the so called ‘free world’s defence’ against ‘an aggressive and threatening dictator’.

What CNN was reporting from the war zone in 1991 would also be quoted by the international media without casting doubt on the reports. It was years later that “the CNN inaccurate and biased reports on Gulf Crisis” were disclosed thanks to the independent journalists. The hundred of thousands unreported civilian casualties by the USA air strike would be revealed when ‘the mission in Iraq accomplished’ and the international community forgot what the Gulf Crisis was about.

Having learnt the lessons of the 1991 Gulf Crisis, the other less-embedded media corporations such as BBC put much more emphasis on accuracy of the reports when it comes to the Western involvement in the rest of the world. Thanks to the Arabic and English speaking channel Al Jazeera, the world has now seen how the USA and its allies have been posing a great threat to the humanity when pursuing their interests. Al Jazeera’s brave reports on the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and now in Palestine has also encouraged BBC and others, except the USA and part of the Turkish media, to give more views of ‘the other’.

Beside Al Jazeera, the British press, The Guardian and The Independent, and BBC also deserve a special praise for not falling into the Israeli trap when reporting the Israeli massacre of Palestinians.

It is Al Jazeera’s live coverage of the carnage taking place in Gaza that forces the USA media corporations to be more careful about reporting the Israeli justifications on Gaza assault. At least we don’t believe even if they report what the USA and Israel tell them to report. But even the USA media’s silence over the massacre in Gaza has not prevented the ‘old main stream’ Turkish media from taking a pro-Israeli stance and biased reports.

While hundreds of children, men and women are being killed in Gaza by Israel, it is very unfortunate to see the ‘old main stream’ Turkish media show a pro-Israeli stance. The daily national Hürriyet and its sister newspapers have played down what has been taking place in Gaza by putting more emphasis on the chador-worn women protesting Israel and the killed HAMAS leader Nizar Rayyan’s four wives. Such reporting is an indirect way of supporting Israel, as the readers sensitive to secular principles could justify the Israeli act of genocide. Not only Hürriyet and its sister newspapers, but surprisingly even in some conservative-leaning newspapers, there are columnists playing down the massacre in Gazza.

The humanity is on trial for the Israeli massacre of Palestinians, so is media.