Watch Part 2

On The Listening Post this week a look at the media coverage of new settlement building in Israel.

In any other country or territory the approval for building 900 new housing units would be seen as a routine piece of municipal administrative paperwork and not a news story.

But when the municipality involved is Jerusalem, and the land the Israelis are building on is Palestinian, those housing units become an illegal settlement and consequently make the headlines.

This particular stroke of an Israeli administrator's pen has been interpreted by the global news media as a very public rebuff, by the Netanyahu government, of the Obama administration's efforts to re-start peace talks between Israel and Palestine.

The international media's spotlight has been fully on a place called Gilo which most news outlets call a settlement, but others, primarily Israeli and American, say is just a disputed neighbourhood.

Liberal libel

In part two, Meenakshi Ravi takes a look at the British libel laws on press freedom that are having an impact far beyond the UK.

Free speech campaigners are saying English libel law is restricting the media, but also scientists, researchers, NGOs and others from holding the rich and powerful to account.

The British government has finally taken notice, saying it plans to reform the laws to level the playing field.

But the reform may not come in time to stop foreign publishers from taking their newspapers and magazines off the shelves in the UK because they are afraid of being sued.