The UK Parliament’s Fake News Enquiry has now published submissions from Honest Reporting and from Professor Richard Landes,  after UKLFI’s intervention.

Fake news has been recognized as a serious threat to democracies following Russian interference on social media around the world.  For the past few months, the UK Parliament has been conducting an enquiry into fake news and invited submissions from interested parties.

In February 2018 Honest Reporting submitted an overview of the fake news that is often damaging to Israel – when naive journalists fail to fact check the credibility of their sources and subsequently spread fake news stories.  At around the same time Professor Richard Landes, submitted his report on the “Pallywood” staging of scenes by Palestinian journalists in order to present the Palestinians as hapless victims of Israeli aggression.

While other submissions appeared on the Parliamentary inquiry’s website within a short time of being submitted, neither Professor Landes’ nor HonestReporting’s were published online.  Submissions from students and schoolchildren were being published despite a clear lack of expertise on the issue.

It seems a strange coincidence that two submissions dealing with fake news relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were seemingly being ignored by the Parliamentary inquiry’s staff.

Only after the intervention of UK Lawyers For Israel, were the submissions published.  Simon Plosker of Honest Reporting commented: “It is unpleasant to contemplate the possibility that the organs of UK democracy may have interfered with the right to be heard and that it took a lawyer’s letter to rectify this.  Nonetheless, HonestReporting’s submission is now online and part of the inquiry’s record.”