Israel / Palestine

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Leshaches

Reuters have been among the better western news agencies raising the issue of journalists being killed, but they’re still falling short. They’re shying away from the eye-catching reports that Israel is targeting journalists families too, which is even more fucked up than targeting just the journalists. Why they’re chicken shit about confronting the matter is anyone’s guess.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-war-most-dangerous-ever-journalists-says-rights-group-2023-12-21/

The first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war have been the deadliest recorded for journalists, with the most journalists killed in a single year in one location, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday.

Most of the journalists and media workers killed in the war - 61 out of 68 - were Palestinian. The report said it was "particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military."

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h2o in reply to @Leshaches

They’re not chicken shit, they just can’t prove the intention - which is why they’re quoting someone else making that assertion instead, so at least that narrative is out there even if they can’t vouch for it directly. Knowing many journalists who work there, I’m pretty sure that if they had proof of the intention then they’d run it.

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Leshaches in reply to @h2o

They’re not chicken shit

My writing wasn’t very clear: I wasn’t singling Reuters out as chicken shit, rather the rest of the major news channels who don’t touch the subject.

they just can’t prove the intention

They could report the facts and let readers know what they know. If they’re waiting to report on the numbers until they can prove intention of illegal targeted killings in a war zone, then they’ll be waiting years, which makes them useless as ‘breaking news’, and contributes to hiding the facts from the public by allowing the Israeli military’s laconic and cynical ‘we don’t target journalists’ line to go unopposed.

Perhaps it’s down to conflicting editorial priorities, or what appeals more to their readers, but the article listed above was posted yesterday/last night on the front page in small text 3 reads from the top. By morning it was gone.

In comparison, they’ve previously featured more prominently news about the numbers of journalists being killed in Mexico, around 130 since the year 2000 (68 have been killled in Gaza since October, book authors not included). None of the Mexican journos have been killed with their entire families.

Perhaps it’s less shocking news than I perceive it to be, and I’ll stop harping on about it but I think the treatment this situation has received is really shocking compared to historical precedents against journalists elsewhere.

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