The Listening Post

With Alexey Navalny’s death and Julian Assange’s extradition appeal happening within a week of each other, we look at the selective treatment of the two dissenters in the Western media. Lead contributors: Chip Gibbons - Policy Director, Defending Rights & Dissent Matt Kennard - Chief Investigator, Declassified UK Branko Marcetic - Writer, Jacobin Rebecca Vincent - Director of Campaigns, Reporters...

More than a million Palestinians have been crammed into the city of Rafah -  which is being bombed by Israel with the imminent threat of a ground invasion. Western media, however, has once again failed to communicate the severity of this moment. Contributors: Laura Albast - Media Analyst, Institute for Palestine Studies-USA Nabih Bulos - Middle East Bureau Chief, LA Times Adel Iskandar - Professor...

This past week’s elections in Pakistan were meant to be a formality, the outcome - a win for the PMLN - predetermined by the Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus. But despite their attempt to manage the narrative and meddle with politics, former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party, the PTI, had an unexpected pull with the people. Contributors: Amber Shamsi - Director, Centre for Excel...

Israeli intelligence accuses a UN refugee agency of collusion with Hamas – and the media take it at face value. Israel has for years been claiming that the United Nations refugee agency (UNRWA) is in cahoots with Hamas. The latest allegations – which coincided with the International Court of Justice’s order for Israel to prevent genocide – bear the hallmarks of a distraction tactic. So far, the me...

Part 1: What does the ICJ ruling mean for Israel? Judgement day at the International Court of Justice. The court has ruled the people of Gaza must be protected from genocidal acts carried out by Israel. Richard Gizbert is joined by producer Tariq Nafi to discuss the impact this ruling could have on how the media discuss the war in Gaza. Part 2: Mohammed el-Kurd on Palestinian resistance Writer and...

The ICJ hearings have drawn scorn as well as shock from Israel’s media punditry. In the West, however, the case has emboldened journalists to ask tougher questions of the Israeli narrative. Lead contributors: Oren Ziv - Reporter, +972 Magazine Mouin Rabbani - Co-editor, Jadaliyya Selma Carmey - Human rights lawyer Gideon Levy - Columnist, Haaretz Daniel Levy - President, US/Middle East Project; Fo...

With the International Court of Justice deliberating over South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, we look at how the proceedings could affect reporting on the war. Contributors: Qaanitah Hunter - Journalist, News24 Nimer Sultany - Editor-in-Chief, The Palestine Yearbook of International Law Daniel Levy - President, US/Middle East Project Tony Leon - Political commentator On our radar: In Ecua...

After three months of destruction, displacement and the killing of Palestinians, we take a deep dive into the way the Gaza story has been covered. Since the attacks on October 7, The Listening Post has interviewed a range of experts on the news coverage – what’s missing in it, and how it has helped enable the crimes being waged on Palestinians in Gaza. In this special edition, we’ve compiled three...

In 17 years of The Listening Post, we have never seen a story anything like Israel’s war on Gaza. It has been a turning point for the world order as we know it and its media ecosystem – which is why, since October 7, we have covered nothing else. In this special edition, we compiled our reporting on the Gaza war over the past 12 weeks. The extent of the brutality, a genocide unfolding in plain sig...

According to Gaza’s government media office, Israel’s military has now killed 97 journalists in the Strip. Israel has barred international media from entering Gaza, firsthand reporting on the onslaught there has been left to Palestinians already locked into the occupied territory - documenting their own genocide. Contributors: Amahl Bishara - Professor of anthropology, Tufts University Arwa Damon...

Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza is being witnessed in real time, with Palestinian civilians broadcasting their own bombardment; Israeli soldiers streaming sadistic acts of humiliation - proof of an historic crime. The question Palestinians are asking - urgently - is whether it will make any difference. Contributors: Ariella Aisha Azoulay - Professor of Modern Culture & Media, Brown University Om...

More than 60 days into the Israel-Gaza war, two Israeli news outlets - +972 magazine and Local Call - published a report on The Gospel, a new artificial intelligence system deployed in Gaza. The AI helps generate new targets at an unprecedented rate, allowing the Israeli military to loosen its already permissive constraints on the killing of civilians. Contributors: Marwa Fatafta - MENA Policy and...

If the United States has aided and abetted Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the European Union’s role has been one of quiet complicity. In a special edition of The Listening Post, we examine the discourse around the conflict in three EU countries: Germany, where shows of support for the Palestinians have been heavily suppressed; France, where television news channels have distorted t...

Forty-eight days of bloodshed later, a truce lasting 96 hours - between Israel and Hamas - has come into effect, giving Palestinians in Gaza some temporary room to breathe. But in the information war, there is no ceasefire in sight. Contributors: Abboud Omar Hamayel – Academic, Birzeit University Hussein Ibish – Arab Gulf States Institute Mia Bloom – Professor, Georgia State University Shashank Jo...

The evidence provided by Israeli forces to justify their attacks on Gaza's hospitals has come up short - and so has the news coverage. Contributors: Alice Rothchild - Health Advisory Council, Jewish Voice for Peace Diana Buttu - Palestinian Lawyer Meron Rapoport - Editor, Local Call Yumna Patel - Palestine News Director, Mondoweiss On our radar: Israeli politicians are calling for the transfer of...

Freedom of expression is under the gun in the Land of the Free. We look at what media in the United States is missing in Israel’s war on Gaza - and why it matters. Contributors: Noura Erakat - Associate Professor, Rutgers University Abdallah Fayyad - Journalist; Former Member, Boston Globe Editorial Board Alex Kane - Senior Reporter, Jewish Currents Jack Mirkinson - Acting Senior Editor, The Natio...

After three weeks of a punishing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Israel is still refusing to allow international journalists in. News outlets and audiences are entirely reliant on local Palestinian reporters, who risk their lives to provide a window into the war. Contributors: Tal Schneider - political and diplomatic correspondent, Times of Israel Nathan Thrall - author of A Day in the Life of Abed S...

After three weeks of punishing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Israel is still refusing to allow international journalists in. News outlets and audiences are entirely reliant on local Palestinian reporters, who risk their lives to provide a window into the war. Contributors: Mouin Rabbani - Co-editor, Jadaliyya Omar Shakir - Human Rights Watch, Israel and Palestine director Yara Eid - Gazan journalis...

Two weeks into Israel’s war on Gaza, what the world is witnessing - from Israeli leaders' racist and genocidal rhetoric to the mass killing of Palestinian civilians - bears the hallmarks of a historic crime. This episode looks at how the media are responding - in Israel and beyond. Contributors: Neve Gordon - professor of international law and human rights, Queen Mary University Tariq Kenney-Shawa...

What we are seeing in the occupied Gaza Strip and Israel has no precedent - the barbarism, the talk of vengeance, the war crimes. And the signs, all too familiar ones, of journalists succumbing to the pressures under the powers that be. In this special episode, we delve into the news coverage of the war in Palestine and Israel. We examine the narratives that have emerged since Hamas’s surprise att...

With a week to go until elections in Poland, the ruling Law and Justice Party has used its control of the public broadcaster to drown out opposition voices and push its anti-European Union, anti-migrant messaging. Contributors: Jan Cienski - Senior Policy Editor, Politico Europe Paulina Lenik - Assistant Professor, Kozminski University Anita Prazmowska - Professor in International History, LSE Woj...

The resignation of 92-year-old media magnate Rupert Murdoch has set in motion the long-awaited succession of his empire. What effect will his son Lachlan’s leadership have on media - and politics - worldwide? Contributors: Kerry Flynn - Media Reporter, Axios Des Freedman - Professor, Goldsmiths, University of London Matt Gertz - Senior Fellow, Media Matters for America Paddy Manning - Author, The...

As the residents of the city of Derna count their dead, authorities in eastern Libya expel news crews from the city and evade scrutiny of their role in the disaster. Contributors: Elham Saudi - Co-founder & director, Lawyers for Justice in Libya Sami Zaptia - Editor-in-chief, Libya Herald Anas El Gomati - Director, Sadeq Institute On our radar: Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch announced his resignation...

Saudi Arabia’s massive spending on sport is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s strategy to diversify the petrostate’s economy and re-shape its brand. Contributors: Abdullah Al-Arian - Author, Football in the Middle East Gregg Carlstrom - Middle East Correspondent, The Economist Kristin Diwan - Senior Research Scholar, The Arab Gulf States Institute Rayhan Uddin - Journalist, Middle East Ey...

Politicians have long had a tendency to frame the past in a way that suits their political agenda in the present and the Holocaust is no different. In this special episode of The Listening Post, Johanna Hoes reports on historical revisionism in Poland; the governing right-wing Law and Justice party’s attempts to portray all Polish people as heroes or victims while concealing an uncomfortable truth...