Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), In an interview with Leeds University’s award-winning weekly newspaper Leeds Student, Sameh Habeeb, the editor of the Palestine Telegraph, was asked whether he believed that mainstream news organisations have a “hidden” agenda.
“They are certainly pro-Israeli. I think you have to ask yourself who controls the media,” Habeeb replied in the latest edition of the students paper published on April 30.
But following protests led by Jak Codd, Communications & Internal Affairs Officer at Leeds University Union, which funds the paper, a compromise deal was reached to delete the comments that were claimed to be ‘anti-Semitic’ after threats to suspend the publication.
“If Leeds Student wish to fund themselves, source their own advertising, and rent their own office, then they can print whatever they want,” said Codd in defending his censorship decision in an open article on the union’s website Tuesday.
He admitted that his intervention caused an “outcry” from students and that he was accused of “censorship, inventing anti-semitism, seeking to silence criticism of Israel, and even of proving that Jews do control the media by my actions.”
“Apparently it is ‘ironic’ that a Jew should take action to stop the student paper promoting the view that Jews control the media,” Codd said in reference to his own religious affiliation.
The newspaper has launched a petition calling for the reinstatement of an uncensored version of the edition and for the union to issue an apology to its editor.
According to the Jewish Chronicle, over 700 student union members have also joined a Facebook group protesting against the decision to censor the issue.
“Ok, so one of your student officers took offence at an article because he views an interview answer as saying the media is controlled by Jewish people. A Jewish student officer who then exerts control over the student newspaper by getting the paper removed and the article censored,” one student said.
The latest controversy comes after Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle condemned the BBC last week as being “cowardly” for bowing down to the Zionist lobby after apologising for one of his jokes about Israel, who he described as an “aggressive, terrorist state.”
“It’s tragic for such a great institution but it is now cravenly afraid of giving offence and vulnerable to any kind of well drilled lobbying,” Boyle said.
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