“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza, there will soon be no one left to inform you”: the shock campaign signed by RSF
The heinous assassination of Al Jazeera’s star journalist Shireen Abu Akleh provided a terrifying demonstration of this in Jenin on a sad May 11, 2022: no press bulletproof vest has ever protected Palestinian journalists from the murderous fury of the world’s most immoral army…
On the contrary, they have always made them prime targets for Israeli snipers who, two years after this summary execution of a seasoned reporter, are now firing in all directions, no longer shy of committing a war crime or violating international humanitarian law, in the absolute horror of the genocide committed against the population of Gaza.
In the space of a year, 165 brave Palestinian journalists, immersed in the heart of the hell of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, were murdered in the exercise of their professiondriven by the desire to inform about the scale and barbarity, unprecedented in the 21st century, of the mass massacre perpetrated by Israel.
” At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza, there will soon be no one left to inform you. “.
This hard-hitting phrase, intended to strike a chord, is highlighted by Reporters Without Borders (RFS) on a large banner deployed as part of an international awareness and denunciation campaign, “coup de poing”. A campaign designed both to pay tribute to the Palestinian journalists who died on the front lines in a Gaza Strip that was completely destroyed, and to alert the general public to the extremely serious attack on journalism and freedom of expression that they have suffered.
This Thursday, September 26, marked the launch of this major borderless operation, which will be punctuated by symbolic actions in front of emblematic monuments of ten countries: L’Germany, Brazil, Spain, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Senegal, Switzerland, Taiwan and Tunisia. Thus, in front of the Eiffel Tower, bloodied “PRESS” vests – symbolizing the frightening number of journalists who paid with their lives for their commitment to informing the world – will remain on display for all to see.
” The massacre of journalists in Gaza must stop. The Israeli military’s elimination of Gaza’s journalists, more than 130 in less than a year, threatens to impose a complete media blackout on the locked-down enclave. These attacks target not only the press in Palestine, but the right of the public everywhere to receive reliable information – free, independent and pluralistic – from one of the most watched conflict zones on the planet. We demand the protection of Gaza’s journalists, an end to impunity and the opening of the Strip to foreign journalists. It is our right to information that is at stake.” – Thibaut Bruttin, Director General of RSF
