Two journalist brothers, Ahmed Abu Soheil and his sister Zahra Abu Soheil, lost their lives as a result of an Israeli army attack, on November 9, 2024 in Gaza City, Gaza. Five people, including women and children, were killed and many others were injured when the Israeli army targeted the Fahd al-Sabah School in Jaffa Street in Gaza City, where displaced Palestinians took shelter. (Photo by Karam Hassan/Anadolu via Getty Images)
In the fast-paced news cycle, it is inevitable that today’s breaking news fades away into oblivion the next day — but Israel’s genocide in Gaza is an exception.
Despite Israel’s violent crackdown on the media’s ability to report on the killing of Palestinians in Gaza, it has failed to keep its war crimes out of public view.
The number of journalists killed has risen to 188, according to credible reports by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
These deaths are deliberate and part of Israel’s war goals to silence journalists. This is an indefensible and outrageous assault on media freedom.
Since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israelis and Israel’s retaliation in Gaza, it has been the deadliest period for journalists in the past four decades, according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF).
The statistics are staggering: they account for 70% of all journalists and media workers killed worldwide over the past year, as documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The reality is that the risk for journalists in Gaza is unprecedented.
“Wearing a helmet and a bullet-proof vest with the word ‘Press’ on it no longer guarantees protection, but rather makes you a target,” is the view of Free Press Unlimited (FPU) and the Dutch Association of Journalists (NvJ).
Within a fortnight after Hamas’s attack on 7 Oct October 2023 after decades of siege of Gaza, the Netanyahu government enacted draconian emergency laws allowing it to shut down foreign media seen as “harmful to the country”.
An assessment by Reporters Without Borders reveals uncomfortable truths about Israel’s attack on free speech: “Under Israel’s military censorship, reporting on a variety of security issues requires prior approval by the authorities. In addition to the possibility of civil defamation suits, journalists can also be charged with criminal defamation and ‘insulting a public official’. There is a freedom of information law, but it is sometimes hard to implement.”
Being on the receiving end of Israel’s killing of its journalists, Al Jazeera condemned the targeted attacks saying they “constitute a calculated campaign to silence those who dare to document the realities of war and devastation”.
It comes as no surprise that, according to a new report from the CPJ released about a week ago, Israel is the world’s second-worst offender after Haiti in letting the murder of journalists go unpunished.
In an Al Jazeera interview, CPJ Chief Executive Jodie Ginsberg said: “Israel is not committed to investigating or punishing those who have killed journalists … Israel has deliberately targeted journalists for being journalists”.
She said that in some cases, Israel announced the killings, claiming without evidence the reporters were “terrorists”. In others, such as the killing of three Lebanese journalists on 25 October, it was clear they were targeted since nothing else was in the area.
Though these facts are well known and documented, it is strange that South African media institutions and guardians of free speech have been largely silent on Israel’s impunity.
The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) condemned the raid by Israeli soldiers on Al Jazeera’s bureau in the Occupied West Bank, but it does not go far enough.
If indeed Sanef holds the view that attacks on media freedom strikes at the heart of democratic principles and that journalists must be free to report fairly, safely and without fear of intimidation, surely it warrants a more intrusive intervention?
In its latest United Nations meetings coverage, Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied Since 1967, held a crucial briefing.
It dealt with international legal responsibilities for preventing genocide, holding perpetrators of war crimes accountable, and for ending the unlawful occupation of Palestine.
She said the international community must recognise what is happening in Gaza as a genocide and to be mindful of Israel’s bigger design.
It is not simply war crimes and crimes against humanity that Palestinians are experiencing, “they have experienced those through their entire life”, she said.
Under the fog of war, Israel has accelerated the forced displacement of Palestinians that began decades ago. “What’s happening today is much more severe because of the technology, the weaponry and the impunity”, said Albanese.
Her recommendation to suspend Israel’s credentials as a member state of the UN makes perfect sense.
And it is urgent if media institutions take heed of Ginsberg’s warning that murder is the ultimate weapon to silence journalists.
Iqbal Jassat is an executive member of Media Review Network.