Netanyahu Says Israel May Sue New York Times Over Misleading Gaza Photo

Prime Minister Netanyahu is considering suing the New York Times for defamation over its reporting in Gaza, the Israeli leader told Fox News on Thursday. “The New York Times should be sued,” Mr. Netanyahu said during an interview with Fox News’s Bill Hemmer. “I am actually looking into whether a country can sue the New York Times. I am looking into it right now.” Mr. Netanyahu was referring to a story published on the front page of the Times in July with the headline, “Young, Old and Sick Starve to Death in Gaza: ‘There Is Nothing.’” The piece included a striking image of a visibly malnourished boy draped over the arms of his mother, who told the Times that her 18-month old son “was born healthy but was recently diagnosed with severe malnutrition.”The image and several other photographs taken of the boy were picked up by international outlets including the Guardian, the Daily Mail, and others, and inspired widespread condemnation of Israel. However, inconsistencies in the set of photographs were detected by pro-Israel advocacy groups. One photo, which was omitted from the Times piece, showed the boy’s older brother, who appeared to be perfectly healthy and well-fed. Eventually, an independent journalist, David Collier, uncovered a medical report that showed the boy, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, was born with serious genetic disorders. Namely, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a group of neurological disorders that permanently affect muscle control, movement, and posture. By Tuesday — four days after the story was published — the Times added a correction to the article and announced the change on its public relations account on X. The account, which boasts some 89,000 followers, is far less popular than the Times’s main account, which has 55 million.“We have appended an Editors’ Note to a story about Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a child in Gaza who was diagnosed with severe malnutrition,” the Times Communications account shared on X. “After publication, The Times learned that he also had pre-existing health problems.” The post included a longer statement from a New York Times spokeswoman, who reiterated, “Children in Gaza are malnourished and starving, as New York Times reporters and others have documented.” She noted that the story had been updated with context about the boy’s pre-existing health problems, which “gives readers a greater understanding of his situation.” The correction, and its accompanying statement, struck some as too little, too late, and inspired calls for the Israeli government to take legal action against the Times.Mr. Netanyahu, on Thursday, called the incident “such clear defamation.” “The New York Times puts out a major story on the front page, a Palestinian mother holding a child, starved supposedly. And then it turns out that that child has cerebral palsy. It’s a congenital disease. He has a brother who is well fed, family is well fed. And then they correct it with the denial a size of a postage stamp buried in the back pages,” he said. When probed by Mr. Hemmer about suffering in the Strip, Mr. Netanyahu replied: “There is suffering because Hamas is interdicting aid and what we’re doing is overcoming. I don’t deny that there’s suffering. I want to end the suffering. And I want to end it by ending Hamas rule.”A spokesman for the Times responded to Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks by defending the Times’ coverage in Gaza and stating that “Attempts to threaten independent media providing vital information and accountability to the public are unfortunately an increasingly common playbook, but journalists continue to report from Gaza for The Times, bravely, sensitively, and at personal risk, so that readers can see firsthand the consequences of the war.”Any defamation lawsuit would face significant legal hurdles. Per the law, the Israeli government would need to prove the Times published false statements with “actual malice” — meaning that the Times knew the information was false but chose to share it anyway — and demonstrate that the country sustained reputational damage.

Netanyahu Says Israel May Sue New York Times Over Misleading Gaza Photo

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