GCHR calls for an end to rising attacks and murders of journalists in the region.
This statement was originally published on gc4hr.org on 2 November 2023.
As we mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on 02 November 2023, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) mourns the deaths of over 20 journalists in October 2023, who were killed by Israeli air strikes that targeted them while they were working or in their homes. Many more have been injured or are missing. We call for an end to attacks on journalists everywhere, including targeted attacks on journalists or media buildings, whether during wartime or otherwise.
Among the countries which GCHR covers, on 13 October 2023, GCHR reported that journalist Issam Abdullah, who worked for Reuters, was killed after an Israeli air strike targeted a group of journalists in the town of Alma Al-Shaab, located in southern Lebanon. Six other journalists were injured. The journalists prominently displayed signs indicating that they were journalists, in addition to wearing helmets and press vests, and they were carrying out their journalistic work away from any military gatherings.
Palestinian and international press freedom groups reported that at least 26 Palestinian journalists were confirmed killed as a result of the latest war in less than one month. Many others are injured or missing, and have family members who have been killed. By the time we publish this report, more journalists and their family members will have been killed if the bombing does not cease. There will likely never be any accountability for their killings.
Among the latest Palestinian journalists killed last week is journalist Duaa Sharaf, a young mother who was killed with her only 15-month-old baby son Aubaidah when Israeli airstrikes hit her home in the middle of the Gaza strip on 26 October 2023. Sharaf was a programme presenter at Voice of Al-Aqsa radio since January 2015.
The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists is marked by UNESCO, with the participation of GCHR, every year to draw attention to the lack of accountability for attacks on journalists. The theme this year is on the violence against journalists, the integrity of elections, and the role of public leadership.
Through its work on a project in 2021 and 2022 funded by UNESCO’s Global Media Defense Fund, GCHR published a report on “Challenges Facing Journalists in the MENA Region”, which includes two reports on attacks on Palestinian journalists, published earlier this year.
When we published the investigations from this project, GCHR’s Journalists’ Protection Coordinator Zaynab Al-Khawaja said, “While working on this project I have been overwhelmed by how much my colleagues on the ground have to face and overcome, and I have been very scared for them.” That sentiment holds even more true today.
Through the GMDF project, GCHR enabled some journalists to investigate different types of violations that impact a journalist’s ability to work, including a Palestinian journalist shot in the eye, who nearly lost his life, and a case of a disappeared Syrian journalist who may have been murdered. In addition, we have provided investigations of cases of women journalists who are attacked and harassed in Iraq and Palestine, including through the use of online photos, making them want to leave their work. We also published an investigation in Morocco about the imprisonment of journalists through false accusations, and an investigation in Lebanon into the use of military courts to prosecute journalists.
Two investigations were carried out about the threats to journalists in Palestine, which was already one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist. Palestinian journalists, including Shireen Abu Akleh, who was fatally shot on 11 May 2022 by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and Ghufran Warasneh, who was shot while reporting on camera on 01 June 2022, were murdered with impunity.
One investigation features a journalist in Palestine, Moath Amarneh, who lost his eye because he was specifically targeted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) while on the job, despite wearing a PRESS vest, among a pattern of journalists targeted and murdered by the IDF while working. On 16 October 2023, four Palestinian journalists – Mustafa Al-Khawaja, Sabri Jabr, Abdulnaser Al-Laham, and Moath Amarneh – were arrested in the West Bank by the IDF. Amarneh was reportedly beaten and was being deprived of his medication.
You can also read GCHR’s report published last year on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on 02 November 2022.
