A roundup of commentary on Aftonbladet’s organ harvesting outrage.

COMMUNIQUE: 1 September 2009

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet’s story (translated into English in full here) accusing the IDF of harvesting Palestinian organs caused an uproar. Following its publication, we tracked hundreds of your e-mails to Aftonbladet Editor in Chief Jan Helin, who was certainly left in no doubt as to the depth of anger that his decision to publish an unsubstantiated blood libel had generated.

Donald Bostrom, the author of the offensive piece, duly demonstrated his utter lack of any basic journalistic standards when he said: "But whether it’s true or not – I have no idea, I have no clue." On top of this, the story was further undermined as one of the Palestinian families interviewed said they never told any reporter that their son was missing organs.

Rather than acknowledging a case of shoddy, not to mention offensive journalism, Aftonbladet and even the Swedish government turned the issue into one of freedom of speech, as the situation escalated into a full blown spat between the Israeli and Swedish governments.

HonestReporting supports freedom of speech. We have been on the receiving end of accusations that our protests against biased or anti-Israel media are simply a deliberate attempt to shut down the freedom to criticize Israel of those with whom we disagree. Nothing could be further from the truth. While Israel’s detractors seem to have ready access to a media only too willing to promote their ideas, Israel’s supporters should also have the legitimate right to respond.

We believe that with freedom of speech comes responsibility. Our protests and the calls from Israeli government officials for the Swedish government to condemn Aftonbladet’s blood libel are not an attempt to stifle criticism of Israel. Instead, we are calling for Aftonbladet and those in power in Sweden to exercise responsibility for a story that not only breaches basic journalistic standards, but also plays upon classic anti-Semitic canards which seep into the consciousness of those who will find such a Big Lie preserved on the web and beyond for eternity.

Put simply, we believe that a journalist should have some facts before publishing accusations. Publishing allegations from biased sources without making an effort to check if they are true is not "free speech." It is what harms free speech and we expect any self-respecting member of the media to say so.

THE DEBATE CONTINUES

Here we present a roundup of recent developments and commentary on the Swedish blood libel.

* Israeli university lecturer Modechai Kedar debates Donald Bostrom in this TV debate.