How to report the Gaza genocide?

WHAT ARE the ethics and realities of reporting genocide when the only journalists on the scene are being slaughtered?

On Monday 7 July London Freelance Branch of the NUJ is holding a teach-in at the Houses of Parliament - for all NUJ freelance members, and MPs - on the ethics and realities of reporting a genocide.

Back on 26 January 2024 the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's actions in Gaza to date met the threshold for issuing anti-genocide "provisional measures" ordering it to cease. It did not.

To brief us on the legal frameworks of what is a genocide we will be hearing from the director of Human Rights Watch UK, lawyer Yasmine Ahmed, on the structures of International Human Rights Law (IHL) and the obligations of the Israeli State to Palestinian civilians living in the occupied Palestinian territories.

On the challenges of broadcasting in-depth stories from Gaza on mainstream media platforms we will be learning from Ben De Pear, the founder of Basement films and formerly Editor of Channel 4 News; and from Menna Hijazi, assistant producer of Basement Film’s award-winning documentary Gaza the Killing Zone.

Pete Chonka, Senior Lecturer in Global Digital Cultures at King's College London, who previously worked in Somalia as a reporter and translator for the International Committee of the Red Cross, will share with us his experiences working in Somalia and the difference between the international responses to these two conflicts.

We have also invited veteran BBC journalist Fergal Keane; NUJ General Secretary Laura Davison; and Ahmed Alnaouq, founder of We are not Numbers.

We have emailed full invitations to Branch members. Contact us if you should have an invitation and do not.

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'When the only journalists are being slaughtered' teach-in report