Al Jazeera pleads for global action to protect Gaza’s journalists
Al Jazeera Media Network is urging press freedom organisations, legal institutions, and fellow journalists to act immediately to stop the starvation and targeting of media professionals in Gaza.
The network says that the Israeli blockade and military campaign have brought the local population, including journalists, to the edge of survival.
For over 21 months, Gaza has endured non-stop bombardment and severe restrictions on food and aid, which Al Jazeera describes as a deliberate campaign of starvation.
The toll on journalists has been especially severe, with reporters risking not only their safety but now struggling simply to stay alive.
On July 19, Al Jazeera correspondents in Gaza began posting alarming messages on social media, among the most haunting was from Anas Al-Shariff, a correspondent with Al Jazeera Arabic.
“I haven’t stopped covering for a moment in 21 months, and today, I say it outright … And with indescribable pain. I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment … Gaza is dying. And we die with it.
Anas Al-Shariff stated
Despite the conditions, Gaza-based journalists continue to document genocide.
Al Jazeera emphasised that these professionals are not just reporting the news, they are living it, and dying in the process and yet, the global community continues to overlook their suffering.
Dr. Mostefa Souag, Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network, strongly condemned the targeting of media workers.
We owe it to the courageous journalists in Gaza to amplify their voices and put an end to the unbearable suffering they are enduring due to forced starvation and targeted killings by Israeli occupation forces.
Dr. Souag said
Since October 2023, five Al Jazeera journalists have been killed: Samer Abudaqqa, Hamza AlDahdouh, Ismael Al-Ghoul, Ahmed Al-Louh, and Hossam Shabat as well as family members of other Al Jazeera and local journalists have also died under Israeli airstrikes.
The journalistic community and the world bear an immense responsibility; it is our duty to raise our voices and mobilise all available means to support our colleagues in this noble profession. If we fail to act now, we risk a future where there may be no one left to tell our stories.
Dr. Souag stated
Al Jazeera says that attempts to intimidate and silence the press would have led to a complete blackout of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.
It warned that continued inaction would represent a historic failure of global institutions to uphold freedom of the press and human rights.
The network is calling for an immediate international response to protect the lives of journalists and to halt the siege tactics that have decimated Gaza’s population and its media professionals.
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