TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - More than 130 press freedom and international media advocacy groups, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), have jointly called for foreign journalists to be granted access to cover the Gaza Strip. RSF and CPJ specifically request direct, independent, and unrestricted access for these journalists.
These organizations also demand full protection for Palestinian journalists, nearly 200 of whom have been killed by the Israeli army over the past 20 months.
For over 20 months, Israeli authorities have prohibited foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip. During this period, the Israeli army has killed close to 200 Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, with at least 45 of them killed while on duty.
Palestinian journalists who continue to report, serving as the sole eyewitnesses on the ground, face unbearable conditions, including forced displacement, hunger, and constant threats to their lives. This collective appeal, initiated by RSF and CPJ, unites leading news outlets from every continent in demanding the right to send correspondents to Gaza to report alongside Palestinian journalists.
According to RSF and CPJ, the media blockade in Gaza facilitates the widespread destruction and eradication of the besieged area. Israeli authorities are preventing foreign journalists from entering and controlling the flow of information from the Gaza Strip.
"This is a methodical attempt to silence the facts, suppress the truth, and isolate the Palestinian press and population. We call on governments, international institutions, and heads of state to end their complicit silence, enforce the immediate opening of Gaza to foreign media, and uphold a principle that is frequently trampled: under international humanitarian law, killing a journalist is a war crime. This principle has been violated far too often and must now be enforced," the organizations stated in a written statement quoted from the official RSF website.
The media blockade in Gaza persists despite repeated calls from RSF to ensure independent access for foreign journalists to the Gaza Strip, and legal actions such as the Foreign Press Association's (FPA) petition to the Israeli Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Palestinian journalists remain trapped, displaced, hungry, defamed, and targeted for their work.
Journalists who survive massacres have no shelter, equipment, medical care, or even food, as reported by the CPJ. They are at constant risk of being killed.
To end the impunity that allows these crimes to continue, RSF has repeatedly referred these cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC). RSF urges the ICC to investigate allegations of war crimes committed against journalists in Gaza by the Israeli army.
Tempo is among the hundreds of media outlets supporting this appeal. The appeal was signed by Wahyu Dhyatmika, Chief Executive Officer of PT Info Media Digital.
From Southeast Asia, other signatories include Luat Khoa Editor-in-Chief Trinh Huu Long from Vietnam; Executive Editor of Mekong Review, Kirsten Han from Singapore; RK Anand, Executive Editor of Malaysiakini, Malaysia; and Soe Myint, Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief of Mizzima Media from Myanmar.
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