Rabat – Nearly 600 journalists representing dozens of news organizations from across the world have signed an open letter condemning Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza and protesting Western media’s biased coverage of “Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians.”
The letter warned that “Israel’s devastating bombing campaign and media blockade in Gaza threatens newsgathering in an unprecedented fashion,” adding: “We are running out of time.”
The statement underlined Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the West Bank since the new cycle of violence began on October 7, killing more than 10,000 individuals so far, including 35 journalists.
Other journalists have been injured, detained, gone missing, or had their family members killed due to the Israeli attacks.
“As reporters, editors, photographers, producers, and other workers in newsrooms around the world, we are appalled at the slaughter of our colleagues and their families by the Israeli military and government,” the letter said.
The letter further highlighted the difficulties that journalists face in the besieged strip due to extensive power outages, food and water shortages, and a dangerous disruption of healthcare services.
It added that Israeli forces have been targeting and deliberately killing journalists while they were “visibly working as press,” citing a report by Reporters without Borders.
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An Israeli airstrike killed the wife, daughter, and son of Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza on October 15.
In addition, Israel has blocked foreign press from entering Gaza and bombed around 50 media headquarters in the region.
“Taken with a decades-long pattern of lethally targeting journalists, Israel’s actions show wide-scale suppression of speech,” said the letter.
In addition, it expressed unwavering support for journalists in the besieged strip and lauded their efforts in providing accurate coverage of the situation in Gaza.
“We stand with our colleagues in Gaza and herald their brave efforts at reporting in the midst of carnage and destruction. Without them, many of the horrors on the ground would remain invisible,” the letter added.
Urging an end to the violence against journalists in Gaza, the group of journalists called on Western newsroom leaders to be “clear-eyed in coverage of Israel’s repeated atrocities against Palestinians.”
The statement strongly condemned Western media’s “dehumanizing rhetoric, double standards, inaccuracies, and fallacies,” holding it accountable for justifying the “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
It accused Western media of undermining Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim perspectives and dismissing them as unreliable, as well as invoking “inflammatory language that reinforces Islamophobic and racist tropes.”
“They have printed misinformation spread by Israeli officials and failed to scrutinize indiscriminate killing of civilians in Gaza — committed with the support of the U.S. government,” the letter stressed.
The statement renewed its call for journalists to “tell the truth without fear or favor,” and to use precise and well-defined terms when reporting on the aggression on Gaza, including “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “genocide.”
