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| The camera, press vest, helmet and mobile phone belonging to the Mariam Abu Dagga, one of the journalists killed in the Israeli army’s attack on Nasser hospital in Gaza on 25 August. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images |
Anthony Bellanger: Gaza has become journalism’s graveyard. Killing journalists is killing the truth
If we accept that reporters die in Gaza, we pave the way for other regimes to consider the murder of journalists a normal instrument of war
History will only be kind to witnesses. In Gaza, it will remember the name of Anas al-Sharif, a young Al Jazeera reporter killed on 10 August 2025. It will also remember the 222 other Palestinian journalists murdered in the past two years by the Israeli army, according to the International Federation of Journalists’ own monitoring. But those who chose to eliminate these media workers will remain condemned forever.
For 24 long months now, Gaza has become the most dangerous place in the world to practise our profession. Israel prohibits foreign journalists from entering the territory, so the truth relies exclusively on Palestinian reporters – almost all of whom are members of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, affiliated to the IFJ. Too often they work without protection and without refuge for their families. And all too often, they are directly targeted.
Never before has the profession of journalism seen such a massacre in its ranks. The International Federation of Journalists, founded in 1926 and celebrating its centenary in Paris in May 2026, has recorded no comparable death toll since its formation, neither during the second world war, nor in Vietnam, Korea, Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq. Gaza has become the worst graveyard for journalists in contemporary history.
But this is not a series of accidental tragedies. It is a clear strategy: kill the witnesses, close Gaza, lock down the narrative.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/03/gaza-conflict-killing-journalists-has-become-journalism-graveyard