by Edward Carver, Common Dreams, July 12, 2024 https://www.commondreams.org/news/media-demand-access-gaza
More than 70 global media and civil society organizations on Thursday signed an open letter urging Israel to open access to Gaza for international journalists. In the letter, published by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the news organizations argue that Israel’s policy of highly restricting access to Gaza "has placed an impossible and unreasonable burden on local reporters to document a war through which they are living." More than 100 Palestinian journalists have been killed during Israel’s nine-month assault on the enclave, according to CPJ. The signatories included major U.S.-based outlets such as CBS, NBC, ABC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bloomberg News, as well as prominent organizations from at least 25 other countries. The letter describes "a free and independent press" as the "cornerstone of democracy," and calls into question Israeli leaders' commitment to press freedom—international journalists are only allowed access to Gaza in carefully guided tours. "[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu describes Israel as a democracy. His actions with regard to the media tell a different story," CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement that accompanied the letter. "International, Israeli, and Palestinian journalists from outside Gaza should be given independent access to Gaza so they can judge for themselves what is happening in this war—rather than being spoon-fed with a handful of organized tours by the Israeli military." The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil liberties group in the United States, praised the letter and called for the U.S. government to use its leverage to demand that Israel open up media access to Gaza. "Israel's far-right government has blocked international media access to Gaza and murdered local media professionals in a cynical effort to keep the world from witnessing its ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass destruction, and forced starvation," CAIR communications director Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement. "The Biden administration, the main enabler of Israel's genocide, must live up to its claims that it supports press freedom and demand that Israel allow free access by the international media to Gaza." . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#31128): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/31128 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/107195841/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
