{"id":16627,"date":"2023-11-15T10:58:45","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T09:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/?post_type=news&p=16627"},"modified":"2025-04-16T19:18:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T19:18:27","slug":"media-policy-and-the-2023-gaza-war","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/news\/media-policy-and-the-2023-gaza-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Media, Policy, and the 2023 Gaza War"},"content":{"rendered":"

The events unfolding in Gaza will shape the course of global politics in the pivotal decades to come. Media is a key component of that political process, both in informing and shaping the opinions of populations worldwide, and already, emerging narratives are being leveraged by Russia to advance political ends.<\/p>\n

The information war does not happen in a vacuum. Hostile disinformation strategy is designed to leverage existing ethnic, historic and political faultlines with the objective of widening existing cracks in social fabric to reduce cohesion, consensus, and the capacity of target governments.<\/p>\n

At RNW Media, we are seeing three key media trends related to the Gaza war:<\/p>\n

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  1. EU, US Legitimacy <\/b>Undermined <\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Monitoring social media in the MENA region, RNW Media is seeing strong patterns of anger and dismay at perceived inconsistencies in official Western responses.<\/p>\n

    For decades, European policymakers have sought to build global alliances based on the idea that democratic values and the rule of law, both international and domestic, are the best framework for healthy, prosperous and free societies. Media development has been a core component of this, the rationale being that free media and freedom of expression furthers these policy aims \u2013 a position that RNW Media supports.<\/p>\n

    Trending social media themes across the region point to stark disparities between European government and media responses to the loss of life between Israeli and Palestinian civilians, as well as the freezing of development aid to Palestinian civil society. The wide traction accumulating around these themes indicates that perceptions of European institutions and their role as arbiters has been severely undermined.<\/p>\n

    Comments reflect a sharp loss of confidence in European governments’ authenticity, and in support for the values they espouse. One such example:<\/p>\n

    “World conscience is fake. The institutions built by the west are there to support their colonial projects…We are alone.”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    RNW Media’s position is that acting consistently with the rule of international law and with the values of democracy and human rights is not only the moral imperative \u2013 essential to safeguard and prevent further loss of innocent lives \u2013 it is also the most impactful way to further European foreign policy aims, including lasting peace in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

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    A post shared by Khaled Beydoun (@khaledbeydoun)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n