250 news outlets worldwide condemn ‘massacre’ of journalists in Gaza
Times of Malta among organisations demanding Israel open Gaza's borders to independent reporters and abide by obligations to protect the press
Audiences worldwide woke up Monday to newspaper front pages and media outlets bearing a plain image and the words, "At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed."
The 'Global Media Blackout' campaign, coordinated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and global campaigning movement Avaaz, follows the killing of 11 journalists in Gaza by Israeli forces over the past three weeks.
Times of Malta is among some 250 news outlets in over 50 countries demanding Israel open Gaza's borders to independent journalists and abide by international obligations to protect the press.
The organisations are also demanding that governments across the world host Palestinian journalists seeking evacuation from Gaza.
The outlets, which include media organisations based in Israel, condemned the “ongoing massacre of Palestinian journalists” in Gaza, noting that more than 210 reporters have been killed by Israel in the enclave since the start of the war.
A recent report from Brown University in the US concluded that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, the conflicts in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined.
The Independent (UK), L'Humanité (France), +972 Magazine (Israel/Palestine), Al Jazeera (Qatar), Local Call (Israel/Palestine), Public Interest Journalism Lab (Ukraine), RTVE (Spain) and Der Freitag (Germany) are among the organisations taking part in Monday's action.
Campaign coordinators noted Israel's refusal to grant independent journalists access to Gaza was "without precedent in modern warfare".
Last month, five Al Jazeera media professionals, including prominent reporter Anas al-Sharif, were killed in an Israeli strike on their tent in Gaza City. The Israeli military admitted to targeting al-Sharif, claiming he was a "terrorist" affiliated with Hamas.
Evidence supplied by Israel in support of its claim has been disputed by media organisations, including the BBC, which called it “unconvincing”. The deliberate targeting of journalists is considered a war crime.
Two weeks later, five journalists and staff members for local and international news services, including Reuters and the Associated Press, were killed in a double strike on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Palestinian journalist Hassan Douhan was killed later the same day in an Israeli strike on the same city.
In December 2023, al-Sharif's father was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the family home after the journalist received threats from Israeli military officers ordering him to stop covering the war and leave Gaza.
RSF executive director Thibaut Bruttin said the campaign media organisations “reject this deadly new norm, which week after week brings new crimes against Palestinian journalists that go unpunished”.
“This campaign calls on world leaders to do their duty: Stop the Israeli army from committing these crimes against journalists, resume the evacuation of the journalists who wish to leave Gaza, and ensure the foreign press has independent access to the Palestinian territory.”
More than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to recent figures released by the Gaza health ministry. Those figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.