Allegations that journalists in Gaza were being targeted by Israeli forces have been aired on Australian television.
Yet Paul Barry, presenter of the ABC’s Media Watch, says there has been “little or nothing” in mainstream media about the deaths and serious injury of reporters and cameramen during the conflict.
He quoted the case of 19-year-old video journalist AlHassan Hamad, who was targeted by an Israeli drone in his bedroom on October 6 after receiving threatening messages. One in May, from an Israeli number, told him, “if you continue spreading lies about Israel, we’ll come for you next”, adding threats against his family.
Barry says it is clear the drone shell was targeted specifically at him.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera has been moved out of Israel, Hassan’s death bringing the number of journalists killed during the conflict to 175.
“Are we now so hardened to journalists being targeted,” Barry asked.
He quoted a rare comment from Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst, calling for journalists – specifically Palestinian journalists – to be protected during the war. “The Israelis have killed journalists with drone strikes and with small arms fire and it’s unacceptable,” he added.
Barry said that while there was no proof that the IDF deliberately killed Hassan – which they had denied – “they could easily have tracked his movement… and it fits with Israel’s strategy of shutting down news of the conflict, banning independent reporters from Gaza and shutting down Al Jazeera’s office in the West Bank.”
More footage followed the cases of two cameramen shot on consecutive days while working for Al Jazeera, one during a live to air sequence. One was “chased and shot in the neck by an Israeli quadcopter”, before being rushed to hospital, “amid suggestions he will be paralysed”.
Barry quotes Thomson Reuters Foundation deputy editor Barry Malone, “I feel sick. How many more colleagues do we need to see this happening to?
“If you’re a journalist and you’re not speaking out in solidarity, why?”
It’s worth repeating the question.
RSF director of campaigns Rebecca Vincent condemned the latest attacks “by Israeli forces on journalists simply trying to do their jobs reporting on the war”. They came while representations were being made in Geneva calling for urgent UN action to stop “the relentless violence against Gaza’s media”. Vincent called for the injured journalists to be given safe passage out of the country to receive medical care, adding, “We hold the IDF fully responsible for what happens next.”
Photo: RSF/Reporters Without Borders