Israel and the loss of press freedom

Something is very wrong with the state of the reporting over the Israel-Hamas war. Either Al Jazeera is reckless with its reporting, or the Western media aren’t doing their jobs, or are being censored in an attempt to shield Israel from negative world opinion. Al Jazeera is coming out with reports no other outlet is reporting nor even carrying.

And with the UN’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists on Thursday, it’ll be interesting to see what comes out of the two-day event at the Organization of America States in Washington. It’s never been more dangerous for journalists worldwide, and maybe never more than in Israel right now. The death toll for journalists from the Hamas-Israeli war, according to Reporters without Borders is at 29, although other reports have it as high as 34. Reporters Without Borders is coming down hard on Israel, citing the targeting of journalists, censorship of news outlets and the harrassing and intimidating of news gatherers.

Al Jazeera reported that Qatar was in an advance stage of brokering a ceasefire and hostage exchange. I saw this in no other news outlet. It reported that Israel was on the cusp of implementing a law that allows imprisonment of journalists for reporting news demoralizing to the morale of the Israeli nation. And lastly, Al Jazeera is reporting that Reporters without Boundaries claims that Israel is targeting journalists, with at least one from Reuters being killed and six others injured by Israeli gun fire. That the casualties were not the result of collateral damage but from a deliberate attack.

In the latter case, journalists had gathered in the open in Lebanon, with their press colors clearly visible and were fired upon twice within 30 seconds. According to investigations, the rounds of fire came from the Israeli side. Also, a Palestinian reporter was assassinated by Israeli soldiers last year with no one held accountable.

As for censorship, according to Reporters Without Borders, Al Jazeera will probably soon become inaccessible within Israel. Emergency regulations due to be enacted on Sunday will censor the Qatari broadcaster, one of the main sources of international coverage of the war.

In a report by Aljazeera, Reporters without Borders claims that Israel is targeting journalists.