A further three Lebanese and two Israeli journalists have been killed in the 12 months since 7th October 2023, bringing the total to 128. Three quarters of the total number of Palestinian colleagues recorded dead were killed by Israeli airstrikes.
This is the worst year on record for journalist and media worker deaths.
According to investigations by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least five of these journalists were specifically targeted by Israel for their work. The organisation is examining at least 10 further cases of deliberate targeting. All of these murders have so far been met with 100% impunity; no information has been released and there is no indication that any investigation or inquiry is being carried out by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) into any of the deaths.
Research published in May 2023 showed that over the previous 22 years, at least 20 journalists have been killed by the IDF, with zero accountability.
CPJ also reports that over 40 journalists remain in jail, 10 of whom were detained by Israel in the West Bank and held without charge under the country’s administrative detention law, which allows for indefinite renewal of detention orders.
Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate data reports that some 86 media institutions have been destroyed in the war. At least five media have been permanently or temporarily shuttered by Israel.
International reporters continue to be denied independent access to Gaza to comprehensively cover the war. As WAN-IFRA stated alongside 70 other media organisations in a joint letter released in July, “this effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an impossible and unreasonable burden on local reporters to document a war through which they are living.”
The ability of the press to report freely has also been heavily affected inside Israel. According to information obtained from the military censor in response to a freedom of information request submitted by +972 Magazine and the Movement for Freedom of Information in Israel, in 2023 alone military censors barred the publication of a record 613 articles.
“The censor also redacted parts of a further 2,703 articles, representing the highest figure since 2014. In all, the military prevented information from being made public an average of nine times a day.”
As a result, mis- and disinformation has freely circulated, “fuelling an already volatile and highly-charged mediascape, but that especially undermines the professionalism of colleagues who are living through hell to get the story out of Gaza,” said Andrew Heslop, WAN-IFRA’s Executive Director for Press Freedom.
“We are devastated by the number of colleagues killed and remain immensely concerned by the lack of access – not only to report on what is going on in Gaza, but in order for colleagues in desperate need to receive assistance. We need the war to stop and for those left in Gaza to be allowed the chance to rebuild their lives with dignity and hope, with the full support of the international community.”