As journalists duck for cover, a legal expert suggests an unconventional shield

One hundred and twenty-nine journalists were killed around the world last year, making it the deadliest year for the media in three decades. Nomi Bar-Yaacov believes solving this will require paperwork, not protective gear.

Bar-Yaacov, a veteran mediator and international law expert, says the global community needs a new international treaty to protect the press.

“We need a treaty to protect journalists – a body for states to go to and that will add pressure on states to implement,” Bar-Yaacov argued this week.

Bar-Yaacov operates in the high-stakes backrooms of global diplomacy. She has spent decades brokering resolutions in conflict zones, and her resume maps the world’s most influential corridors, from the United Nations to Chatham House and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

Standing before an audience of lawyers, politicians, activists and journalists at Valletta’s Casino Maltese on Monday, Bar-Yaacov delivered the Mabel Strickland memorial lecture. The lecture, an annual event, is organised by the Strickland Foundation. (The foundation owns Times of Malta publisher Allied Newspapers.)

International law protects journalists under general human rights or wartime statutes but there is currently no single, legally binding treaty focused exclusively on the press.

A Q&A session following Bar-Yaacov’s speech tugged at the hems of legal idealism. One audience member said he worried about laws being weaponised to muzzle the press. Another said it would be dangerous to give falsehoods oxygen in the name of free speech.

Bar-Yaacov knows that social media feeds are part of the problem: people in many Arab countries were shown “total lies” about the October 7, 2023 terror attacks on Israel, she said.

But when asked what to do about Instagram and X feeds only showing people what they want to see, she stopped short of offering the same sort of law-based solution she wants for states.

Instead, she suggested that videos and podcasts presenting “different perspectives” could burst those filter bubbles.

“We need to create a social media buzz about the truth,” she said, calling for activists and reporters to adopt the tactics propagandists have leveraged to go viral.

Iran, she noted, has had huge online success with its Lego-style AI videos. Media outlets could learn from them.

We need a treaty to protect journalists – a body for states to go to and that will add pressure on states to implement- Nomi Bar-Yaacov

Law alone cannot save the free press, she acknowledged. Part of the solution, she indicated, will emerge from plucking out the rotten apples.

“If the media publish lies, they must be exposed and punished,” she said.

And a “tech hub” that brings together technologists and angel investors could help states and societies police the internet, she added.

She was dismissive of data indicating that around 80 per cent of Israelis trust the country’s military.

“I don’t trust polls,” she said.

Multiple studies, however, show the military consistently ranks as the most trusted institution in Israeli society, with trust levels far outstripping public faith in the media or the government.

The disconnect is stark. According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, Israel’s military, the IDF, was responsible for two-thirds of all journalist deaths worldwide in 2025. 

Bar-Yaacov called out the horrific scale of that violence.

As the evening drew to a close, the distinguished speaker faced some pushback from sceptical audience members. Will podcasts be enough to break algorithms? Can treaties – all signatures, no spines – stop drones?

Bar-Yaacov remained resolute.

“A treaty would add pressure,” she argued. “Every report filed would add pressure and set a certain standard. It will not solve the problem on its own. But it will help.”