Pacific Media Watch
The Paris-based world media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for international journalists to be given open access to the besieged Gaza Strip enclave and has reaffirmed its demand that the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutes the perpetrators of Israeli war crimes against journalists.
RSF has already filed four complaints with the ICC and has declared it will continue its efforts to work for justice and support Palestinian journalism.
In 15 months of the Israeli war on Gaza, the military has killed more than 150 Palestinian journalists — the Gazan Media office says more than 210 — including at least 41 who were killed while working.
The ceasefire that began on Sunday has ended — for the moment — the war that turned Palestine into the “most dangerous territory” in the world for journalists, according to RSF’s 2024 Round-up.
“For 15 months, journalists in Gaza have been displaced, starved, slandered, threatened, injured, and killed by the Israeli army,” said RSF’s director-general Thibaut Bruttin.
“Despite these dangers, they have continued to inform their fellow citizens and the world while foreign journalists were denied access to the territory.
“Gaza’s reporters are the pride of journalism. With the ceasefire agreement, the work of local and international reporters is more crucial than ever — it will go hand in hand with the work of the justice system.
Independent access needed
“To this end, international journalists must be given independent access to the besieged territory as quickly as possible.
“To avoid increasing this war’s terrible death toll, the Israeli authorities must immediately authorise the hospitalisation of journalist Fadi al-Wahidi outside the Gaza Strip.”
Bruttin said that RSF, which had filed four complaints with the ICC since 7 October 2023, called on the court once again to prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes against journalists in Gaza.”
Al Jazeera journalist Fadi al-Wahidi, who was gravely injured on 9 October 2024 while reporting from the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, is fighting for his life as the Israeli authorities continued to refuse his transfer to a hospital abroad, despite repeated calls from RSF.
Also, two Palestinian photojournalists, Haytham Abdel Wahed and Nidal al-Wahidi, have been missing since 7 October 2023.
Need to rebuild media
Gazan journalists have been working in makeshift newsrooms in tents set up near hospitals in order to have access to electricity and internet.
Despite their incredible hardship, they have continued to inform the world from a devastating landscape.
“If the ceasefire agreement is to translate into lasting peace, considerable resources will need to be allocated to rebuilding the infrastructure of Gaza’s media,” RSF said in a statement.
This reconstruction cannot take place without concrete action against impunity for the crimes Israel continued committing for over a year.
On 24 September 2024, RSF filed its fourth complaint with the ICC for war crimes committed against journalists in Gaza by the Israeli army; the first complaint was filed on 1 November 2023.
Arrests in West Bank, pressure in Israel
Overshadowed by Israel’s offensive in Gaza, the West Bank has been the target of multiple abuses by Israeli authorities and settlers that did not spare journalists and media outlets.
According to RSF’s 2024 Round-up, the arrests of Palestinian journalists in the West Bank have made Israel one of the world’s largest jails for media professionals.
The far-right Israeli government has used the state of war as an excuse to strengthen its grip on the media landscape.
In an op-ed published in Haaretz, The Seventh Eye and Le Monde, RSF condemned draft laws that repress the media as well as the intimidation of Israeli journalists who criticise their government’s actions.
Pacific Media Watch collaborates with RSF.
