An Al Jazeera correspondent has argued efforts to enter the Gaza Strip by international journalists have not been enough.
Gaza correspondent Youmna El Sayed, who has been reporting from the strip since 7 October, made the comments at the Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit in London on Wednesday.
Youmna El Sayed said: “International journalists have not fought for the right to enter the Gaza strip and to cover the war.
“They have abandoned the right; they have for many years lectured about the freedom of speech that they have let go when covering the war in the Gaza strip.”
El Sayed added: “They [international media] have used the excuse of ‘lack of information’ or ‘not enough Western journalists entering the Gaza strip’ for not covering the war like they should.”
International journalists have been banned from entering Gaza by Israel unless supervised by the Israeli Defence Force.
In early February, nine press freedom organisations wrote to Prime Minister Sunak, urging the government to do more to protects journalists in Gaza.
Later that month, more than 55 foreign correspondents led by Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford issued a plea to Israel and Egypt, requesting independent access to Gaza. Leaders of more than 30 international news organisations also published a similar letter.
Crawford told an event this month that a lack of apparent pressure from UK politicians to encourage Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza “seems really shocking and appalling and very hypocritical”.
In the first few months of the war, Crawford said, “I thought ‘maybe I’m not doing enough to get inside Gaza, maybe it’s just me that’s failing.’
“And then I realised that every single other foreign correspondent in the world is also, apparently, failing. And that cannot be possible – we’re all being blocked. And that is extremely alarming because we’re not getting the right picture.”
El Sayed, who was speaking alongside Al Jazeera Gaza producer colleague Safwat Kahlout, has worked in the strip for different international news outlets for the past eight years.
Referencing the death of six-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza City after she and her family apparently came under fire from Israeli tanks, El Sayed also said: “There is no excuse for those international journalists who have changed the terms and uses of words when they speak about certain incidents.
“When you call a six-year-old who was killed in her car a young woman, that is complete misconception.”
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