In the past few decades, one of the most important issues heeded by legal communities and international organizations has been the protection of journalists in different conditions of peace and war. Although in the early years of the 20th century, international laws such as the 1907 Hague Convention were aimed at supporting journalists imprisoned during wartime, in the second half of this century, special attention has been paid to the legal shortcomings of the profession of journalism. In this regard, we can refer to the Additional Protocol I of 1977 of the quadrilateral Geneva Conventions, which initially considered the term journalist used in the Additional Protocol to include all persons who are in contact with the media (including reporters, videographers, sound technicians, and photographers).
According to this protocol, journalists who are engaged in dangerous professional missions in war zones are supported as civilians and have the same rights as civilians — of course, on the condition that they do not do anything that contradicts their status as civilians. On the other hand, the Security Council has issued resolutions 1674 (2006) and 1894 (2009) with the aim of supporting civilians in armed conflicts and resolution 1738 (2006) with the aim of supporting journalists and media specialists. Resolution 2222 (2015) also highlights the need to protect journalists and media people in times of conflict and war and rightly introduces the activities of journalists as a genocide recording and alert mechanism.
However, contrary to the emphasis of international organizations and legal institutions on ensuring the safety of journalists by the warring parties, according to graph below, acts of violence have been carried out against journalists between 2002 and 2023. In the meantime, the statistics in 2023 are significant in two dimensions. The first dimension includes the statistics on the growth of violence compared to previous years, showing that the number of journalists killed during the months-long war in Gaza is bigger than those of 2021 and 2022. And the second dimension is that the figures show that all those who lost their lives were killed by one side of the conflict.
Revenge from journalists’ families
Since the Zionist regime’s invasion on Gaza over Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, the dimensions of violence and brutality of this regime have also included the journalist community. According to the statistics, the number of journalists killed in this months-long war is bigger than that of the past few years, leading to protests by legal communities and international institutions. In what follows, the number of journalists who died during the first few days of the war will be presented.
On October 8, the Sheikh Ijlin neighborhood of Gaza was targeted in heavy attacks by the Zionist regime, during which independent journalist Assaad Shamlakh was martyred along with 9 members of his family. Two days later (October 10), a day of tragedy occurred for journalists as Zionist warplanes attacked a building in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza where the offices of several media outlets were located. During this attack, Saeed Al-Taweel, the editor-in-chief of the Al-Khamsa News website, and Mohammed Sobh, a photographer for Khabar news agency, were martyred. Also, Hisham Alnwajha, another journalist who was in the building, was seriously injured and died a day later as a result of his injuries. On October 11, Mohamed Fayez Abu Matar, a freelance photojournalist, also joined his martyred colleagues in Rafah city due to the bombardment of the Zionist regime’s warplanes. A day later (October 12), Ahmed Shehab, a journalist for Radio Voice of the Prisoners, also fell victim to the crimes of the Zionist regime along with his wife and three children in their home in Jabalia.
In the Gaza war, martyrdom is not just limited to male journalists. Ms. Salam Mema, a freelance journalist, also joined her martyred colleagues on October 13 due to the attacks of the Zionist regime, and her body was found under the rubble three days later. On the same day, Al-Aqsa Voice Radio journalist Husam Mubarak and Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah were killed by the Zionist regime in Beirut as a result of the regime’s military actions against civilians.
It is worth noting that the bullets of the Zionist army do not just target journalists. In these one hundred days, a significant number of journalists have also lost their families. Reflection on some of the cases shows that they are not accidental and the Israeli regime wants to put additional pressure on the genocide recording and alert mechanism in Gaza by purposefully killing journalists’ families. The killing of Al-Jazeera journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family in Gaza is one of the most blatant examples of this trend.
Statistics of martyred journalists
Regarding martyred journalists in Gaza, there are different statistics. One of the reasons behind the existence of different statistics regarding journalists killed in this war is the definition of journalist by Reporters Without Borders, because this organization has considered the killing of some journalists to have taken place outside their mission. However, the state media office in Gaza has announced the number of martyred journalists as 117 people. This figure is almost double the number of journalists killed in the Vietnam War in 20 years! In these one hundred days, 50 media offices have been bombed and destroyed as well.
On the other hand, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), while announcing that 81 journalists were killed in the Gaza war, has called Israel’s actions a violation of Resolution 2222, and, in a letter to the Security Council, has asked this UN-affiliated body to not ignore the massacre of journalists in Gaza.
Journalists in Gaza are eyewitnesses of the war and are the eyes and ears of the world in this besieged strip. Killing journalists is a targeted and systematic attempt to cover up the tragic and shocking events in this unprecedented war.
Of course, the deliberate killing of journalists in Palestine is precedented. The martyrdom of Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known journalist who had American citizenship, is one of the most famous of these cases. Reporters Without Borders has brought criminal charges against the Israeli regime in the International Criminal Court three times for the intentional killing of journalists. The interesting point is that since Tel Aviv is not able to easily reject the main content of this complaint, it is not willing to answer for its crimes in this regard with the claim that Palestine is not a country.
In fact, it can be said that the Zionist regime seeks to present its desired image of the Gaza war to the world — an image in which, in addition to its crimes being censored, its failures and losses are also concealed as much as possible. Some international news organizations — including CNN, ABC, NBC, The New York Times, and Fox News — are allowed to enter Gaza only if they are embedded with the Israeli regime’s military and accept certain conditions. They are not allowed to move around in Gaza without the army and must send all their news materials and videos to the military of this regime for review before publication.
It is also worth noting that even the few media activists and Zionist media outlets that are trying to present a different image of this war are under severe pressure and even physical assaults. With all these attempts — from the mass killing of journalists in Gaza to the censorship of war news and the presentation of false and fake news and reports — the Israeli regime has increasingly failed in the public opinion war at the global level.
References:
Johnson, Adam, and Othman Ali. “Coverage of Gaza War in the New York Times and Other Major Newspapers Heavily Favored Israel, Analysis Shows.” Intercept, 9 Jan. 2024, https://theintercept.com/2024/01/09/newspapers-israel-palestine-bias-new-york-times/.
“Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war.” CPJ, 17 Jan. 2024, https://cpj.org/2024/01/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/.
“Tariq Ayoub remembered.” Aljazeera, 31 Oct. 2006, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/10/31/tariq-ayoub-remembered.
