Journalists' Open Letter Denounces Dehumanizing Coverage and Killing of Their Counterparts
More than 750 journalists have signed an open letter published on November 9 condemning Israel's killing of reporters in Gaza and slamming Western media's coverage of the war, the Washington Post reported. The letter, which includes signatories from Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and the Washington Post, states that newsrooms are "accountable for dehumanizing rhetoric that has served to justify ethnic cleansing of Palestinians." The Washington Post said, "For some of the journalists, signing the letter was a daring or even risky move," adding "Reporters have been fired from some newsrooms for espousing public political stances that could open them to accusations of bias." Much of the text of the letter "focuses on the journalists who have been killed in the month-long conflict." The government media office in the Gaza Strip said on November 6 that 46 journalists have been killed there, including targeted assassinations, since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7.
Another open letter, signed by hundreds of Jewish writers, and first published in N+1 magazine, stated: "We are horrified to see the fight against anti-Semitism weaponized as a pretext for war crimes with stated genocidal intent."
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued the most complete list to date of journalists killed in the line of duty. As of November 12, CPJ's preliminary investigations showed at least 40 journalists and media workers had been killed. CPJ is investigating all reports of journalists and media workers killed, injured, or missing in the war, which has led to the deadliest month for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992. CPJ acknowledges that its accounting is not complete saying its database will not reflect many of these casualties until they have fully investigated the circumstances surrounding them. The CPJ report names each journalist killed, the date each was killed and the media organization each worked for.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 23 - November 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS532313.HTM
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