Media and civil society organisations, including the BBC, The Guardian, and Sky News, have signed an open letter this month urging Israel to open access to Gaza to journalists.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international non-profit that promotes press freedom, as of 5 April 2024 the conflict in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon has claimed the lives of 108 Palestinian, 3 Lebanese and 2 Israeli journalists.
Additionally, Human Rights Watch reported more than 250 aid workers have been killed in Gaza as of its May report.
CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg noted: “President Netanyahu describes Israel as a democracy.
“His actions with regard to the media tell a different story.
“International, Israeli, and Palestinian journalists from outside Gaza should be given independent access to Gaza so they can judge for themselves what is happening in this war – rather than being spoon-fed with a handful of organized tours by the Israeli military.”
The letter claims that due to no independent media access to Gaza has been permitted since the start of the war, misinformation and disinformation have spread in an attempt to know what is taking place.
The letter comes ahead of a planned visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States, where he is set to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden and address the U.S. Congress on July 24.
In a discussion panel about the targeting of Palestinian journalists in the parliament, the Secretary of the National Union of Journalists of Parliamentary Group and Labour MP John McDonnell raised concerns that journalists were being targeted.
He said: “We’ve been raising consistently now the target of journalists in Gaza, the way in which there’s been a high degree of focus by the IDF, the Association of Defense Force, on taking particular journalists out.
“A number of our colleagues in Gaza have now lost their lives, and in some instances as well have lost their families too, and it’s been an absolute tragedy.
“What’s been tragic is witnessing the overall loss of life that we’ve had occurrence that have taken place within Gaza itself and in the West Bank.
“But this specific targeting of journalists is, I think, on a scale that we’ve not seen before.”
The CPJ Prison 2023 Census shows that the top five jailers of journalists are China (44 journalists behind bars), Myanmar (43), Belarus (28), Russia (22), and Vietnam (19). Israel and Iran are next, tied at 17 each.
According to PBS, Israel has denied targeting journalists, saying it makes every effort to avoid harming civilians and blaming the high death toll on the fact that Hamas fights in densely populated urban areas.
