Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed around 200 journalists in Gaza and Lebanon.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists has concluded that in 21 cases people were targeted because they were journalists. It describes these killings as “murder”.
The situation appears to be escalating, with five journalists killed in Israeli airstrikes on a hospital on 26 August and six killed two weeks earlier in an attack on tents housing media workers.
Some 150 media organisations around the world – including The Guardian and The Independent in the UK – today supported calls for the killing of journalists to stop and for movement of media in and out of Gaza to resume.
Reporters Without Borders director general Thibaut Bruttin said: “At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed.
“This campaign calls on world leaders to do their duty: stop the Israeli army from committing these crimes against journalists, resume the evacuation of the journalists who wish to leave Gaza, and ensure the foreign press has independent access to the Palestinian territory.”
It has been heartbreaking to read the many stories of journalists killed trying to do a vital job in the worst circumstances imaginable.
It is difficult not to conclude that the current Israeli administration sees attacks on news media as a legitimate military strategy.
More killings of journalists in Gaza will not only plunge the region into darkness, they will send a message out to conflict zones around the world that journalists are fair game for the military.
Read more:
Nearly 1,000 journalists sign new petition urging end to Gaza ‘information blackout’
Marie Colvin Award winner: Journalists in Gaza need and deserve a break
Nils Horner deserves justice ten years after murder – as do journalists killed in Gaza
63 journalists killed in as many days: Silence from newsrooms is deafening
Robert Peston leads Jewish journalists’ call for media access into Gaza
‘We accept the risks’: Sky News boss calls for journalists to be allowed into Gaza
BBC and news agencies sound alarm over ‘threat of starvation’ for journalists in Gaza
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