Israel has prevented international journalists from entering Gaza to expose the horrors of the apartheid state’s genocide there. But independent, local, and often Palestinian reporters risked their lives to get the news out. And it was very often independent media outlets and ordinary people around the world that kept holding the powerful to account. The mainstream Western media, on the whole, failed to do so or simply didn’t try.
Now, with calls for journalistic access to Gaza in the wake of a new ceasefire deal, we must remember the reporters who put their lives and jobs on the line to get the truth out about Israel’s genocide.
As BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen acknowledged this week, the world has had to “rely on valiant Palestinian journalists” for coverage of the genocide. Reporting on Gaza “would have been impossible without them”. And he’s absolutely right. But it would also have been next to impossible to access humane reporting on the atrocities without the political will, or mere journalistic professionalism, of independent reporters who were prepared to speak up and potentially put their careers – and all too often lives – on the line as a result.
Remember the brave Palestinian journalists and their allies
The Canary has consistently stood alongside Palestinian people and held Israel to account for its crimes ever since we began in 2015. And we want to acknowledge our appreciation for colleagues elsewhere for their efforts.
In particular, we’d like to remember the more than 200 Palestinian media workers whom Israel has killed in the last 15 months of genocide. They paid a price to share the stories of their people and expose the crimes of their settler-colonial occupier. Journalist Salma Kaddoumi has insisted that:
For journalists in Gaza, wearing a press vest only makes you a target.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said that, of all the journalists who were killed in 2024, “Israel is responsible for two-thirds of those deaths and yet continues to act with total impunity”.
We also want to call out big tech, especially social media giants like Meta (owner of Facebook etc), for their shameful censorship of Palestinian voices during the genocide. And we must highlight the despicable role the BBC has played in carrying water for Israeli war criminals with its pro-Israel bias. It has let down licence-fee payers, and it has let down innocent civilians in Gaza.
Independent journalists, meanwhile, have risked arrest to hold the powerful to account. Or alternatively, they have risked their jobs or access to the halls of power. But their integrity has been their priority. LBC, for example, appeared to take away Sangita Myska’s job because she was too professional in holding Israel to account for its actions. The outlet soon replaced her with far-right pro-Israel agitator Suella Braverman.
Al Jazeera, meanwhile, has been such an essential resource. It has carefully documented the horrors in Gaza. And as Al Jazeera‘s Richard Sanders said:
Western journalists will soon flood into Gaza. Many will report the appalling conditions they find there as a revelation.
Don’t be fooled. At Al Jazeera we have been laying bare the full horror all along. “Nobody can say they didn’t know.”
THIS.
And this AGAIN. https://t.co/06J4Fhm6oJ
— Sangita Myska (@SangitaMyska) January 16, 2025
Featured image via the Canary
