From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

This week, the families of 16 civilians killed by NATO's 1999 bombing of Serbian state television,

were told that they would not have their day in court.

The European Court of Human Rights holds that attacks on broadcast stations are not legal

unless those stations are engaged in military operations. But Yugoslavia had not signed on to

those human rights conventions and so was not covered under them.

More recently, American forces have bombed Taliban radio facilities and just over a week ago, the Israeli military

took out the voice of Palestine. Human rights and journalism groups are concerned about the targeting

of media outlets. Even under the European law, they say, military chiefs tend to blur the distinction

between what may be an ugly but legal arm of propaganda and what is

a legitimate military target. Joining us now is Mark Regge, spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington,

D.C. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much for having me. We'll just start from the beginning.

Why did the Israeli military destroy the Palestinian radio

station, the voice of Palestine?

The strike against the voice of Palestine was part of a surgical strike against infrastructure

targets that have been part of the terrorist network that has been attacking Israel.

Radio and television stations are considered civilian facilities under international humanitarian

law.

Hasn't Israel violated those laws by destroying the station?

We're talking about the propaganda vehicle for an autocratic regime, and I'm not sure the United

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