April 20, 2002

Dear NPR News,

Thank you for Julie McCarthy's outstanding report from Jenin refugee camp, for All Things Considered on April 19.

McCarthy's crisp, straightforward reporting about the devastation and misery she witnessed in the camp and the moving testimony from a man lamenting the disaster and wondering where his family, neighbors and neighborhood had disppeared to, amongst the earthquake-like destruction were heartbreaking to hear.

McCarthy's inclusion of the expert opinion of Professor Derrick Pounder a forensic pathologist from Dundee University, who has called the claims that many people are still buried under the rubble credible, was a welcome contrast to the kind of "he said, she said" reporting in which the observation of stark and irrefutable facts, and the accounts of eyewitnesses on the one hand are given only as much weight as baseless assertions and blanket denials from the Israeli army spokesperson on the other.

The forces and interests who wish to ensure that the truth about what happened in Jenin never emerges are powerful and determined. This means that journalists and media organizations who tell things as they see them and who stick with this story will come under intense, and possibly unprecedented pressure, criticism and perhaps intimidation.

It is therefore of vital importance that NPR continue to report this story through to the end, and with tenacity. If the reporting remains of the quality that McCarthy provided us in this report, then there is no reason to expect that this will not be the case.

Yours,