Exchange of correspondence with Reuters AlertNet, regarding the biased activities and agendas of its NGO members and "Content Partners"
Reuters AlertNet describes itself as:
a humanitarian news network based around a popular website. It aims to keep relief professionals and the wider public up-to-date on humanitarian crises around the globe.
AlertNet attracts upwards of three million users a year, has a network of more than three hundred contributing humanitarian organizations and its weekly email digest is received by more than 10,000 readers.
It was started in 1997 by Reuters Foundation – an educational and humanitarian trust — to place Reuters’ core skills of speed, accuracy and freedom from bias at the service of the humanitarian community.
The above-mentioned three hundred contributing NGOs, include Christian Aid , Caritas, and World Vision, who regularly engage in demonization and anti-Israel bias, erase the context of terrorism and attack Israel rather than pursuing purely humanitarian goals. They also promote boycott and divestment campaigns or are allied with groups (such as Sabeel) that do so. [1] Other members include Oxfam, ANERA, MSF and Save the Children, whose political activities under the guise of humanitarian aid have been extensively documented by NGO Monitor.
AlertNet also includes content provided by "Content Partners", described on the AlertNet website as:
Content Partners
At the request of member charities, who would like relevant news sources to be aggregated by AlertNet, we aim to create a network of contributors who have valuable content but do not fulfill the membership criteria. These organizations are known as ‘content partners’ who, while not receiving any of the member benefits, make use of the AlertNet channel to give their content a wider audience.
The "content partners" include technical sources, such as TropicalStormRisk.com, as well as highly politicized NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, another powerful NGO with a consistently biased political agenda.
The following is the correspondence to date between NGO Monitor and Reuters AlertNet.
November 7, 2005
To: Mark H. Jones
Editor, Reuters Alertnet
alertnet@reuters.com">alertnet@reuters.com
Dear Mr. Jones,
Re: Reuters Alertnet Content Partners
NGO Monitor, the organization I represent, would like to request to be a "Content Partner" on Reuters Alertnet.
NGO Monitor generates and distributes critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations and the general public. The organization publicizes distortions of human rights issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and provides information and context for the benefit of NGOs working in the Middle East.
We hope this will lead to an informed public debate on the role of humanitarian NGOs.
You may find more here.
Please let me know how we may proceed. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Dov Rabinowitz
Communications Director
NGO Monitor
communications@ngo-monitor.org">communications@ngo-monitor.org
From: communications@ngo-monitor.org
Sent: 28 December 2005 11:16
To: AlertNet
Subject: Content Partner – [Fwd: Attention: Mark H. Jones]
Dear Mr. Jones,
I wrote to you Nov 7th regarding NGO Monitor serving as a "Content Partner" with Reuters Alertnet. (Below, please find this letter.)
NGO Monitor is a relevant news source with valuable content, and is utilized by many in the NGO community.
I would appreciate your reply, and I look forward to working together to serve the NGO community.
Best,
Dov
—
Dov Rabinowitz
Communications Director
NGO Monitor
communications@ngo-monitor.org
Subject: RE: Content Partner – [Fwd: Attention: Mark H. Jones]
From: "AlertNet" <alertnet@reuters.com>
Date: Mon, January 9, 2006
To: communications@ngo-monitor.org
Priority: Normal
Dear Dov,
We have considered your request, and I am afraid that our membership committee has decided not to accept your organisation as a content partner.
There are two main reasons for this:
1. While we feel that your organisation offers a valuable service, the political arena in which you/we operate is very sensitive – and as you are mainly interested in highlighting anti-Israel bias, we were concerned that if we publish your material, we risk offering a rather one-sided view. We really do have to tread very carefully in this area, so I hope you can understand this reservation.
2. We did not see adequate evidence on your site that you would be able to offer us a regular stream of material in the form of an automatic feed, which is one of our key requirements.
We are, however, interested in receiving your material by email (press releases, reports, etc).
Please do send this to alertnet@reuters.com">alertnet@reuters.com, and it will be then be passed on to our journalists who may follow up with a story.
Best regards,
Megan Rowling
Reuters AlertNet
Reuters Foundation
Email: megan.rowling@reuters.com">megan.rowling@reuters.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 7542 3405
Fax: +44 (0)20 7542 9072
www.alertnet.org for news and information on emergency relief
From: communications@ngo-monitor.org
Sent: 15 January 2006
To: Megan Rowling; AlertNet
Subject: RE: Content Partner – [Fwd: Attention: Mark H. Jones]
Dear Ms. Rowling,
I thank you for your response, and for your frank acknowledgement that the decision not to include NGO Monitor as a content partner is due to "political sensitivity" and a need to "tread carefully" in responding to anti-Israel bias.
However, as you will no doubt understand, we find this response deeply flawed and unacceptable.
You write that, in revealing the biases and lack of credibility of some NGO reports, NGO Monitor "offers a valuable service". Yet, in order to avoid appearing biased and one-sided, you refuse to publish the very NGO Monitor reports which highlight the biased and one-sided coverage – and instead continue to carry the biased and one-sided reports themselves. This is, to say the least, illogical, and perpetuates the abuse of the rhetoric of human rights and humanitarian norms.
If avoiding bias in reports on central humanitarian issues is at all a concern, as well it should be, Reuters AlertNet should actively seek to carry evidenced-based reports on this subject. Certainly, Reuters AlertNet should not actively avoid publishing NGO Monitor’s reports detailing bias. The most basic journalistic ethics demand this.
You serve an important community, one that needs and deserves your best effort at delivering accurate information. It certainly deserves better than an intentional ignorance, or perpetuation, of biased and one-sided reporting.
You also refer in your letter to certain technical requirements. Please advise us of these requirements, as well as of the procedures and composition of the Membership Committee to which you referred.
We look forward to your prompt reply, as do the 8000 subscribers to NGO Monitor reports, and the many more Internet readers.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dov Rabinowitz
Communications Director
NGO Monitor
Subject: AlertNet Content Partnerships
From: "Mark H Jones" <Mark.H.Jones@reuters.com>
Date: Thu, January 19, 2006 6:29 am
To: communications@ngo-monitor.org">communications@ngo-monitor.org
Dov,
I’m sorry that Megan didn’t make this clear in her initial response but AlertNet does not have many content partnerships and only agrees them with groups which meet the following criteria:
Global (or at least regional) coverage of a particular issue.
A particular emphasis on ‘forgotten crises’ — to even up on the apparent lack of media focus on some of the worst humanitarian emergencies.
Ability to supply material requested by AlertNet member charities
I don’t feel that NGO Monitor meets these criteria.
Nevertheless, and as Megan suggested, we would be interested in receiving your material by email for possible use in our stories.
Regards
Mark Jones
Editor, Reuters AlertNet
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