Last Friday, I wrote about an article in Beirut’s Daily Star critical of Lisa Goldman, an Israeli journalist, who had taken a reporting trip to the country using her Canadian passport. Well, the Star sent us a response on behalf of its editorial staff and I thought it was worth posting:

The Columbia Journalism Review published an article by Gal Beckerman on July 20, 2007, entitled “An Israeli Reporter in Lebanon, No good deed goes unpunished,” that misrepresented a story that appeared on July 17, 2007, inThe Daily Star entitled, “Two Israeli journalists scrap ethics for scoop.” Beckerman’s article quoted The Daily Star as saying that Israeli blogger
Lisa Goldman, who prepared a report for Israel’s Channel 10 news from Lebanon, “not only broke Lebanese law but violated codes of ethics in journalism and endangered the lives of those interviewed.” The full sentence published in The Daily Star reads, “When two Israeli reporters
entered Lebanon under false pretenses last week to conduct reports on Lebanese life a year after the summer 2006 war with Israel, they not only broke Lebanese law, but also violated codes of ethics in journalism and endangered the lives of those they interviewed, according to professors and residents who spoke to The Daily Star Monday.” The sentence that Mr. Beckerman quoted in his article did not represent the views of The Daily Star, but rather those of the professors and residents interviewed by The Daily Star.

Mr. Beckerman also incorrectly asserts in his article that The Daily Star published a story “exposing her [Ms. Goldman] as an Israeli journalist.” The Daily Star would like to point out that Ms. Goldman herself revealed her nationality in her own report for Channel 10 News. Subsequently, Al-Manar, Al-Jazeera, and several Lebanese newspapers covered the story before The Daily Star’s article appeared in print.

Mr. Beckerman correctly points out that The Daily Star did not contact Ms. Goldman for an interview prior to publishing the story. The Daily Star would like to clarify that it would have been a violation of the law for us to contact Ms. Goldman for a response from Lebanon, which is still partially occupied by and in an official state of war with Israel. The Boycott of Israel law passed by the Lebanese Parliament on June 23, 1955, prohibits any contact or agreements with persons or entities of Israeli
nationality or those who reside in Israel. The penalty for violating the law is 3 to 10 years of imprisonment. Article 275 of the Lebanese penal code also prohibits any contact with “the enemy” to assist its military forces. Again, because Lebanon is in an official state of war with Israel,
contact with citizens of Israel constitutes a legal breach. Violation of Article 275 is punishable by death. There have also been thousands of cases in the Lebanese court system of Lebanese citizens being prosecuted under existing laws for having made contact with Israeli citizens. Given these
legal restrictions, The Daily Star did not attempt to contact Ms. Goldman.

More importantly, The Daily Star did not view it as necessary to contact Ms. Goldman, because the angle of the story was explicitly defined as the impact of her visit on Lebanon, and reactions on the Lebanese street. Perhaps no media outlet in Lebanon is better positioned to gauge those reactions than The Daily Star, an independent newspaper, which has long been headquartered in Gemmayzeh, a neighborhood whose attributes and residents Ms. Goldman filmed and publicized in her television report.

Gal Beckerman is a former staff writer at CJR.