International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists: condemn Israel's targeting of media workers
2 November 2024
HOW MANY MORE? Since October 7, Israel has killed over 180 journalists in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as neighbouring Lebanon. Many have been killed alongside family members, during bomb strikes and raids targeting not only their homes but also hospitals and refugee camps.
As the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the recent escalation in Lebanon and the apparent intentional targeting and killing of media personnel are allowed to continue with impunity, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign renews its public condemnation of these barbaric war crimes, as well as the shameful complicity of Western governments and the global mainstream media.
While the death toll continues to reach unprecedented numbers, media workers on the ground are subjected to constant harassment, unjustified detentions, mass communications blackouts and armed raids, in a flagrant breach of International Humanitarian Law.
It comes as no surprise that over the past year, Israel has waged war on the truth: the Zionist aggression on Palestinian journalists did not begin on October 7. Rather, it is part of a long-standing system of intimidation and censorship that followed the Nakba. Over the years, it has been well-documented that Israel’s surveillance tools, technology and military tactics, set a precedent for authoritarian governments around the world.
Attacks on the press pose a danger to democracy everywhere and we must not allow it to continue with impunity. The international corporate media must bear the responsibility to hold Israel accountable and challenge its routine targeting of journalists in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
Therefore, we call on the BBC and other British mainstream media to reconsider their editorial bias and complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. During the deadliest period for journalists covering conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists started recording casualties in 1992, no less.
We condemn the blatant manipulation of words, the repeated use of dehumanising rhetoric and historical revisionism, which work to hide the unmistakable evidence of Israel’s war crimes and the oppression of Palestinians.
Additionally, we call on the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to hold British newsrooms accountable for the abdication of moral clarity and the journalistic malpractice we have witnessed in the past year.
Finally, we join Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) and other international bodies calling on the United Nations Security Council not to turn a blind eye to Israel’s attacks on press freedom, including the targeting of journalists and closure of media bureaus, during its war on Gaza.
SPSC also extends solidarity to journalists here at home facing censorship by the British authorities using its counter-terrorism laws to intimidate and silence reporters like Asa Winstanley, associate editor for the Palestine-focused news site The Electronic Intifada. Winstanley’s home was raided, and several electronic devices were seized by the British counterterrorism police on October 17.
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