there are clues here on how 'our free press' operates;

It’s not the World Court, non-western states, rights groups and Palestinians who have been using the term genocide ‘too lightly’. It’s the Guardian that has reached the same conclusion far, far too late

Jonathan Cook – jonathancook.net Jan 8, 2024

In typically mendacious fashion, the Guardian has allowed one of its columnists to write an opinion piece weighing whether it is appropriate yet to use the term “genocide” to describe what has been happening in Gaza for the past 13 months. You will doubtless be relieved to learn that the paper thinks it may finally be acceptable to deploy the g-word in relation to the ongoing erasure of the enclave and its population.

The Guardian is entertaining this debate 10 months after the judges of the International Court of Justice – the highest judicial body in the world and one not noted for its radicalism – conceded that South Africa’s lawyers had made a “plausible” case Israel’s actions in Gaza met the strict definition in international law of genocide. Conditions in the enclave have grown immeasurably worse since that ruling back in January.

As I recently noted, the Guardian – like the rest of the western media – has had an effective ban on the use of the term genocide, except in legal debates relating to the ICJ case. Whistleblowing staff told Novara Media they were under “suffocating control” from senior editors, and that this pressure existed “only if you’re publishing something critical of Israel”.

So why the paper’s sudden change of tune – assuming that this isn’t just a sop to address growing disenchantment among a section of its readers?..........more.........