Dana Brass

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Dana Brass (DoB 21.07.76 Previously known as Dana Weissman) is a London based business woman and has been active in pro-Israel activities including as Director and Chair of Just Journalism a short lived media monitoring group focused on Israel .

In 2008 Brass was appointed to the advisory board of the Israel-Diaspora Trust[1]


Just Journalism

Brass appears to have been a key actor in the creation of Just Journalism of which she became the first director on 5 November 2007. The venture was short lived and fell apart amid accusations of McCarthyism. In March 2009, Director Adel Darwish announced on his blog that he had resigned from JJ in December 2008. He warned that the overzealousness of the organization's principals risked turning it into 'a Maccarthist which-hunt'[sic] of fellow journalists'. He also noted:

As weeks and months passed, it was obvious that within Just Journalism, there was two irreconcilable views of media reporting on Israel. Mine, seen from a standpoint of a long experience in journalism; and that of the chairwoman, with her commercial background and experience in corporate management who wanted ‘value for money’ which had only one translation ‘as many items on the site as possible’ – obviously items of analysis of unbalanced or biased against Israel, and how many journalists per week were ticked off or contacted to be told that their work did not meet the criteria.[2]

Darwish went on to write that 'It was inevitable that I had to resign since the person who signs the cheques calls the tune. In fact the chairwoman called the tune by instructing staff, who were young, impressionable and also zealous, to place analysis on the website without referring to me as a director.'[2]


Notes

  1. ISRAEL DIASPORA TRUST TRUSTEES' REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2008
  2. 2.0 2.1 Adel Darwish, Adel Darwish resigned from Just Journalism 3 Months Ago, UK -Politics & World Current Affairs, 10 March 2009