By Iqbal Jassat
“A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know.” — Judge Murray Gurfein, Pentagon Papers case, June 19, 1971
In an incredibly fast-paced news cycle, it is inevitable that today’s “breaking news” fades away into oblivion the next day.
While this applies to an overwhelming number of news items within a 24-hour cycle, Israel’s bloody genocide in Gaza has been an exception.
Despite the settler colonial regime’s violent crackdown on the media’s ability to report on the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, it has failed to keep its war crimes out of public view.
The targeted killing of journalists now numbering 134 according to credible reports by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), is not by accident, but by design.
That it is deliberate and follows Israel’s war goals to silence journalists by killing them, is an indefensible and outrageous assault on media freedom.
Since the Netanyahu regime of racist Jewish extremists launched its devastating onslaught in Gaza with direct military aid from the US, it has been the deadliest for journalists in the past four decades or more, according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF).
The statistics are staggering: 70 percent of all journalists and media workers killed worldwide over the past year, as documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“Beyond the numbers, there are stories of unimaginable human suffering for the remaining journalists covering the war: devastation, displacement, permanent disability, and loss of loved ones, friends, and colleagues. And for those who were lucky enough to survive or flee, the psychological trauma lingers”, reports FPJ.
The reality is that under Zionism – a political ideology that thrives on repression and an abhorrence of human rights of the “other” – the risk for journalists in Gaza is unprecedented.
“Wearing a helmet and a bullet-proof vest with the word ‘Press’ on it no longer guarantees protection, but rather makes you a target”, is the view of Free Press Unlimited (FPU) and the Dutch Association of Journalists (NvJ).
Within a fortnight following Hamas’s revolutionary breakout on Oct 7 of decades of siege and crippling military occupation of Gaza, the Netanyahu regime enacted draconian emergency laws allowing it to shut down foreign media seen as “harmful to the country”.
An assessment by Reporters Without Borders, reveals uncomfortable truths (for local Pro-ApartheidIsrael lobby groups) about Israel’s tyranny of free speech:
“Under Israel’s military censorship, reporting on a variety of security issues requires prior approval by the authorities. In addition to the possibility of civil defamation suits, journalists can also be charged with criminal defamation and ‘insulting a public official’. There is a freedom of information law, but it is sometimes hard to implement”.
Being on the receiving end of Israel’s killing of its journalists, Al Jazeera condemned the targeted attacks saying they “constitute a calculated campaign to silence those who dare to document the realities of war and devastation”.
It comes as no surprise thus that according to a new report from the CPJ released a week ago,
Israel is the world’s second-worst offender after Haiti in letting the murder of journalists go unpunished.
In an Al Jazeera interview, CPJ Chief Executive Jodie Ginsberg said from their index “Israel is not committed to investigating or punishing those who have killed journalists … Israel has deliberately targeted journalists for being journalists”.
She said that in some cases, Israel announced the killings, claiming without evidence the reporters were “terrorists”. In others, like the killing of three Lebanese journalists last week, it was clear they were targeted since nothing else was in the area.
Though these facts are well known and documented, it is strange that South African media institutions and “guardians” of free speech have been largely silent on Israel’s impunity.
Groups such as the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF), have yet to take up the cudgel to forcefully “fight” in a literal sense, on behalf of journalists killed by Israel.
While it is acknowledged that a recent statement by SANEF condemned the raid by Israeli soldiers on Al Jazeera’s bureau in the Occupied West Bank, it clearly does not go far enough.
If indeed SANEF holds the view that attacks on media freedom strike at the heart of democratic principles and that journalists must be free to report fairly, safely, and without fear of intimidation, surely it warrants a more intrusive intervention?
In its latest UN meetings coverage, Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied Since 1967, held a crucial briefing.
It dealt with international legal responsibilities for preventing genocide, holding perpetrators of war crimes accountable, and for ending the unlawful occupation of Palestine.
She insisted the International community must recognize what is happening in Gaza as a genocide and to be mindful of Israel’s bigger design.
It is not simply war crimes and crimes against humanity that Palestinians are experiencing – “they have experienced those through their entire life”, she asserted.
The current situation is different because, under the fog of war, Israel has accelerated the forced displacement of Palestinians that began decades ago. “What’s happening today is much more severe because of the technology, the weaponry and the impunity”, said Albanese.
Her recommendation to suspend Israel’s credentials as a member state of the UN makes perfect sense.
And urgent too if media institutions take heed of Ginsberg’s warning that murder is the ultimate weapon to silence journalists.
– Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit: www.mediareviewnet.com
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