A United Nations expert has charged Israel with intentionally targeting journalists in Gaza to suppress evidence of genocide, cautioning that the conflict has become the most lethal ever for media professionals.
“The way in which journalists are being killed, silenced … is the cover-up of genocide,” Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, told reporters in Geneva on Monday.
According to the most recent UN data, at least 252 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war started following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Khan emphasized that this death toll is unprecedented, pointing out that more journalists have perished in Gaza than in both World Wars, the Vietnam War, the Yugoslav conflicts, and the war in Afghanistan combined.
In comparison, only 14 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, and just “dozens” lost their lives over two decades in Afghanistan, she noted.
Khan asserted that many of the journalists killed in Gaza were “deliberately picked out and killed because of the work they are doing to expose atrocities, crimes, [and] genocide on the ground.”
She also denounced Israeli “smear campaigns” that labeled deceased journalists as “terrorist supporters or terrorists themselves” in an attempt to “delegitimise and discredit” them.
“It is not just killing journalists,” she said. “A very clear attempt is being made here to kill the story.”
The expert further censured Israel for preventing international reporters from accessing Gaza, describing it as “extremely unusual” and warning that it establishes a “terrible precedent” for press freedom.
“States must stop Israel before all journalists in Gaza are silenced,” Khan urged.
A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.
Nnamdi Okoli