Nicosia, Cyprus. A study titled Media Coverage of Gaza: The Case of Cyprus has been released by Universitas Publications and the Institute for Mass Media and will be presented at an international conference at the University of Cyprus on January 30-31.
Study and conference context
The conference is titled ‘Reimagining and Rebuilding Palestine: Genocide, Trauma, and the Future of a Suffering Nation’. The study’s preface states that “we appear to have reached a moment of widespread media capture and increasing media capitulation to corporate and political interests”.
Key assertions in the report
The preface adds that “the war in Gaza… has manifested how this capture and capitulation have become normalised and pervasive, as segments of the media have not dared go beyond the limits of what Israel’s long-standing and now entrenched narrative framework had shaped and permitted.” It also cites “the mechanisms of denial and diversionary cries of anti-Semitism,” along with “the almost total ban of foreign media from the theatre of war,” as factors it says have resulted in “insufficient reporting… and a fall back to inoffensive coverage.”
Coverage by Cyprus media outlets
The report largely recounts events in Gaza from October 2023 onwards and examines how they were covered in Cyprus media, including the Cyprus Mail, Phileleftheros, Politis and Kathimerini, among others.
Conflicting narratives and reporting approach
The study describes “conflicting narratives that the warring parties articulated and put out,” and says this makes it inevitable that some claims are “fake news”. It says a common media approach was “to present both sides separately,” with the expectation that coverage would be “balanced” and considered fair.
Example cited by the study
The report cites a Kathimerini headline from August 2025 about the targeted killing of Al-Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif and his entire camera crew. It says Israel claimed he had been a Hamas operative, and describes that claim as problematic, citing what it calls flimsy evidence and noting that Al-Sharif had been reporting almost daily on killings since the beginning and was a well-known and visible journalist.
What do you think the study’s findings suggest about how Cyprus media should report on modern conflicts?
