‘A Heavy Blue Pencil’: The Effect of Government Censorship on Reuters Coverage of the Arab–Israeli Conflict, 1967–73.

MASS media censorship; REUTERS Ltd.; ARAB-Israeli conflict; PROPAGANDA; NEWS agencies

Government restrictions on reporting war and conflict have been the subject of much public and historic debate in two world wars and ever since. This article explores government press censorship in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel during the late 1960s and early 1970s, in respect of international media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict. By examining the work of the Reuters news agency, the important international provider of media information, it assesses the impact on foreign reporting of government prepublication censoring systems and other forms of press restriction. It demonstrates that formal censoring of news became an increasingly hard task due to the availability and incessant development of alternative routes of news transfer. Nevertheless, it also shows that restrictions on press access and news gathering remained effectual, as did the general need to stay on terms with governments, especially in authoritarian states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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