German news media outlets have called on Israel to grant them access to genocide-ravaged Gaza, saying that the war-criminal state’s “almost complete exclusion of international media… is unprecedented in recent history”.
Israel: hiding its war crimes in Gaza
“After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: allow us to enter the Gaza Strip,” a group of newspapers, agencies and broadcasters wrote in an open letter.
They also urged Egypt to permit them entry to the widely devastated Palestinian territory via the Rafah border crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The media organisations wrote that:
Anyone who makes independent reporting on this war impossible is damaging their own credibility. Anyone who prohibits us from working in the Gaza Strip is creating the conditions for human rights to be violated.
The open letter was addressed to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and had been delivered on Monday 16 September, they said.
Signatories included editors and reporters from Der Spiegel, Die Welt, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, and the German Journalists Association.
They said they have decades of experience in conflict reporting and wrote:
We know the risk. We are prepared to take it. Grant us access to the Gaza Strip. Let us work, in the interest of everyone.
Israel’s genocide has killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Crickets from the UK media
So far, UK media organisations have done nothing similar to its German counterparts. In fact, many outlets have been complicit in Israel’s genocide and war crimes, by promoting anti-Palestinian narratives and bias.
However, individual journalists and global organisations did previously take action.
In January, the British National Union of Journalist reported on a court case brought by the Foreign Press Association:
A petition appeal by the Foreign Press Association filed with the Israeli Supreme Court on 19 December has been rejected over “security concerns.” The National Union of Journalists has joined the International Federation of Journalists in condemning the ruling, noting its significant harm on press freedom.
Then, in February as BBC News reported, 50 journalists wrote Israel a similar letter to their German peers:
The letter is signed by correspondents and presenters for broadcasters with UK bases, including the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet and Mishal Husain.
It says the need for comprehensive on-the-ground reporting is “imperative”…
In the letter, external, the 55 journalists write that “foreign reporters are still being denied access to the territory, outside of the rare and escorted trips with the Israeli military”.
Featured image via the Canary
Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse
