PARIS: More than 250 media outlets in over 70 countries staged a front page protest Monday highlighting the deaths of scores of journalists in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, the Reporters Without Borders media freedom group said.
“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no-one left to keep you informed,” the group’s general director Thibaut Bruttin said in a statement.
The protest was taken up on the website front pages of publications including Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera, British news site The Independent, French newspapers La Croix and L’Humanite and Germany’s TAZ and Frankfurter Rundschau, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Some 220 journalists have been killed during Israel’s Gaza campaign mounted in retaliation to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, according to RWB data.
The protest was staged one week after five journalists — some working for Al Jazeera, Associated Press and Reuters — were killed in Israeli strikes on the Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Yunis city. Earlier in August, six journalists were killed in another Israeli air strike outside the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Israel said the strike on the Nasser hospital killings had targeted a Hamas camera. But the attack drew international condemnation. Even US President Donald Trump, a key Israeli ally, said he was “not happy.”
Media participating in Monday’s action “demand an end to impunity for Israeli crimes against Gaza’s reporters, the emergency evacuation of reporters seeking to leave the Strip and that foreign press be granted independent access,” the RWB statement statement.
RWB says it has filed four complaints at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes it says the Israeli army committed against journalists in Gaza over the past 22 months.
International media have been denied free access to the Gaza Strip since the war broke out.
A few selected outlets have embedded reporters with Israeli army units operating in the Palestinian territory, under condition of strict military censorship.
The Hamas 2023 attack killed 1,219 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Some 47 people remain hostage in Gaza out of 251 originally abducted, though only around 20 are believed to be alive.
Israeli’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 63,459 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run government’s health ministry considered reliable by the United Nations.
International media protest over journalist deaths in Gaza
https://arab.news/wbfg3
International media protest over journalist deaths in Gaza
- More than 250 media outlets in over 70 countries staged a front page protest Monday highlighting the deaths of scores of journalists in Israel’s war on Gaza
- “At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no-one left to keep you informed:” RWB general director
BBC backs Israel’s participation in Eurovision Song Contest amid expanding boycott
- Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia withdraw, citing concerns about the war in Gaza, after organizers clear Israel to compete
- Critics accuse organizers of double standards, given that Russia was banned from Eurovision in 2022 after invasion of Ukraine
LONDON: The BBC has backed the European Broadcasting Union’s decision to allow Israel to participate in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, despite mounting opposition and an expanding boycott by European countries and public broadcasters.
National broadcasters in Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia have formally withdrawn from next year’s event, citing what they described as Israel’s violations of international law during its ongoing war on Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 people, left much of the territory in ruins and prompted accusations of war crimes.
The BBC, however, said it backed the decision to allow Israel to take part in the contest.
“We support the collective decision made by members of the EBU,” a BBC spokesperson said. “This is about enforcing the rules of the EBU and being inclusive.”
Israel’s participation in the 2026 event, set to take place in the Austrian capital Vienna in May, was confirmed during the EBU’s general assembly in Geneva on Thursday.
However, pressure continued to build in opposition to the decision, with broadcasters from four countries pulling out and critics accusing organizers of double standards, given that Russia was banned from Eurovision in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine.
Following the EBU decision, Irish public broadcaster RTE said it would neither participate in nor screen the contest. It said Ireland’s participation “remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there.” It also condemned the killing of journalists in Gaza and the denial of access to the international media. More than 200 Palestinian journalists have reportedly been killed since the start of the war.
Slovenian broadcaster RTV said it was withdrawing from the competition “on behalf of the 20,000 children who died in Gaza.” Chairperson Natalija Gorscak said the decision reflected growing public demand to uphold European values of peace and press freedoms, noting that the international media are still banned from Gaza.
She added that Israel’s 2025 Eurovision performance had been overtly political, and contrasted the decision about Israel with the ban on Russia’s participation following the invasion of Ukraine.
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS also withdrew from the contest, describing the decision of the EBU as “incompatible with the public values that are essential to us.”
CEO Taco Zimmerman said: “Culture unites, but not at all costs. What happened last year touches our boundaries … Universal values like humanity and a free press have been seriously violated.”
The EBU did not hold a vote on Israel’s participation in the contest. Instead, member broadcasters voted in favor of new rules for contest voting to prevent governments or other groups from unfairly promoting songs to manipulate the result.
Austria, which is set to host the competition after Viennese singer JJ won this year with “Wasted Love,” supports Israel’s participation. Germany, too, was said to back Israel.
