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In war, free reporting is more important than ever
APART from the deaths of journalists in the Israel-Gaza conflict, free reporting is threatened throughout the region. Examples of which the Freelance is aware include:
A message from a deity? A rainbow over the protest in London on 21 October against mass killing in Gaza.
BBC
We have reports that journalists working for the BBC Arabic Service are "under investigation" while the Corporation looks into Tweets they sent about the Israel-Gaza conflict. According to Cairo24.com (in Arabic) this follows complaints about the Tweets from a US-based pro-Israel group called "Camera Telegraph" and journalists in the Cairo and Beirut offices have been suspended.
Journalists in the BBC Cairo office went on strike in August over their pay not keeping pace with high inflation n Egypt.
‘Harming national morale’
Shlomo Karhi, Communications Minister of the state of Israel, has proposed a law providing a general power of arrest for all who "harm national morale". Middle East Eye notes that this follows on from a proposal for an order to shut down Al Jazeera's bureau in Israel. That was earlier this week under legal review. (The Middle East Eye website was unavailable for part of this evening. We await details.) This is far from the first threat to shut down the news channel in the state of Israel: the most recent that we have found was in July.
Another roadside detraction
Journalists with the BBC Arabic Service were assaulted and held at gunpoint after they were stopped by Israeli police in the city of Tel Aviv, reports the BBC: "They were dragged from the vehicle - marked 'TV' in red tape - searched and pushed against a wall. A BBC spokesperson said journalists 'must be able to report on the conflict in Israel-Gaza freely'."
Restrictive regulations
22 October The Palestine Journalists Syndicate has denounced Israeli regulations that restrict media freedom as "a dangerous precedent and a dark day in the history of media freedom." It "calls on all United Nations organizations, media freedom institutions, human rights institutions, and international judiciary to take practical steps to stop those despicable crimes committed against Palestinian and international journalists, so that impunity does not continue." The full statement is here.
The International Federation of Journalists expands: the government regulation passed on 20 October "will allow for the temporary shut down of news channels which 'damage national security'." The IFJ "urges Israel to review its decision in the name of media pluralism and the public's right to know." Full statement here.
At the time of writing we are not aware of the regulations being applied, yet.
In the dark
27 October All internet and cellphone communication from Gaza is cut off. This has been repeated, most recently on the night of 5 November.
Israel must commit to protecting journalists
On 2 November the International Federation of Journalists issued a demand that the state of Israel "take explicit steps to protect the lives of journalists covering the war in Gaza, in accordance with international law".
IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger said: "No one can watch the growing tally of fallen colleagues without mounting horror. We demand an explicit commitment from the Israelis that their armed forces will take every effort to ensure that the grim tally of journalists who have died in this conflict rises no further. This is simply unacceptable, and the Isreali government will have to accept its responsibilities."
700 lawyers write...
On 26 October 719 legal practitioners, legal academics and former members of the judiciary wrote to the UK prime minister, foreign secretary and defence secretary Though their message does not mention journalism specifically, it does recall that "UK nationals responsible for aiding and abetting international crimes, as well as those committing them as primary perpetrators, are liable for prosecution in the UK pursuant to the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 and the International Criminal Court Act 2001."
More, we fear, follows before long.
A case study in misinformation in Israel's war on Gaza - 12 Nov 2023
Remembering journalists killed in Israel-Gaza conflict
The Psychological Toll of Journalism & How to Build Resilience Rory Peck Trust event 22/11/23
The stakes are high for free expression in Israel-Hamas conflict indexoncensorship.org - 1 November