Today, the GDN joins a campaign by media organisations around the world calling on the Israeli military to stop killing journalists in Gaza, writes Stanley Szecowka.
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 air strikes on a hospital on 25 August and six killed two weeks earlier in an attack on tented housing.
Some 150 media organisations around the world have 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.
editor@gdnmedia.bh
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