Plea from Melb reader of AJN

This letter was leaked to ICJS. The AJN editor refused to run it. It doesn't look too controversial, but it challenges the staus quo, so maybe that is why they didn't run it.

Editor Australian Jewish News
Fax: withheld
Dear Sir,

With respect to Ralph Zwier and his organization, Issues of Concern for Justice and Society, they are having little effect in curbing the blatant biases and untruths that appear in the media. particularly those of Ed O'Loughlin in The Age newspaper.

A couple of weeks ago he wrote that Israel seized Gaza and the West Bank from the Palestinians in the 1967 war, and on reporting about the Israeli soldier who killed the Israeli Arabs last week, O'Loughlin described that event as murder while Israelis only get killed when blown up by suicide bombers.

Then on the PM programme on ABC radio, last week, a representative of the Islamic community thought it reasonable to question Israel's right to exist, which implies the eradication of some 5 million Jews, and that comment went completely unchallenged by the interviewer.

Such biases in reporting and commentary in the media are, in effect, attacks on us and it's up to our community leaders, not just Ralph and his organization, to tackle these problems,

Yours faithfully,

Name withheld.