The scale of global press protests must exceed the scale of journalist deaths in Gaza

Opinion

The press must not succumb to fear of repetition on the horrors in the Strip.

One of the more curious and insidious threats to effective journalism is the fear of repeating yourself.

After all, news is news and that is by definition telling people something new and shiny to entertain and distract.

Another serious once-in-a-lifetime storm is on the way. Boring. We had some of those a couple of months ago and however much it tells us about existential climate change we can’t keep banging on about it, that is just too much repetition.

Deaths in Gaza? An even worse problem. They happen every day — you can’t just keep on leading a news bulletin or fill a front page with yet more deaths unless the numbers are so great that an invisible threshold has been passed in the unwritten rules of journalism.

Journalists shouldn’t be targeted

Deaths of journalists? That’s a bit more tricky, because journalists, as the eyes and ears of the public, aren’t supposed to be killed. At least, not deliberately.

The killings of journalists in Gaza by the Israel Defence Forces have been so numerous, anywhere between 210 and 246, that it has just turned into a gloomy tally, a keeping of the numbers as, apart from their families, individual names fade one into the other.

A week ago, five journalists — Al Jazeera’s Mohammad Salama, Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri, freelance journalist Mariam Abu Daqqa (working for the Associated Press), and Ahmed Abu Aziz and Moaz Abu Taha, were all killed in two Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.

At the beginning of August, six journalists including Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif was killed in a tent sheltering media workers outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.

Already, after less than a month, only the name of the well-known al-Sharif merits repeating, while the others who died with him have been relegated to the list for fear of unnecessary repetition.

It is widely believed that both sets of journalists, with the “protection” of nothing other than tents, were deliberately targeted by the IDF, which would of course constitute a war crime.

All the evidence is that they were simply doing their job, courageously and in the most difficult of circumstances.

If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ever has to appear before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, he will need very good defence lawyers.

The death of Anas al-Sharif is a grim reminder of the need for evidence

Importance of protest

Against such a background, it is important that in protest, the conventional flow of news was interrupted in various forms on Monday, including through news blackouts.

As many as 250 news organisations across 70 countries, including The Guardian and The Independent in the UK, took part in the protests against the killing of journalists in Gaza.

There has not been anything like it before.

One of the most effective actions was by The Guardian, which set aside the considerable amount of space to record the names of those killed, complete with photographs. The outlet has committed to continuing to update the shameful list.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists reviewed the deaths of more than 200 journalists in Gaza and concluded that in 21 cases people were targeted because they were journalists, killings that were “murder.”

Reporters Without Borders director general Thibaut Bruttin warned that at the present rate of killing, there will soon be no-one left in Gaza to keep the world informed.

“This campaign calls on world leaders to do their duty: stop the Israeli army from committing these crimes against journalists, resume the evacuation of the journalists who want to leave Gaza, and ensure the foreign press has independent access to Palestinian territory,” Bruttin wrote.

Abnormal news presentation for extraordinary times

Cynics will carp about pointless symbolism or point to the absurdity of trying to impose blackouts, or even press strikes, rather than telling the news in the normal way.

But for the families of those who have died, it was an important event, even if it is little more than a memoriam which will be ignored by the Israeli government.

Apart from prosecutions, the obvious main pressure on Israel should take the form of trying to obtain access to Gaza for independent foreign journalists.

Israel should not be allowed to continue killing journalists in Gaza while also setting its own news agenda by refusing permission for journalists to enter unless under its own strict supervision.

Some have suggested that journalists should force their way through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza, and if the Western journalists were prominent enough the Israelis would not dare to attack them.

There may not be too many volunteers for such a mission, and even if there were such an enterprise would not pass the risk assessors of any conventional news organisation.

So alas, we are probably left with pressure campaigns on those Western governments who will listen, to allow independent journalists into Gaza.

In the meantime, the same time facts and truths must be repeated as many times as it takes, without succumbing to the fear of being boring.