CPJ, global media leaders call for urgent, unrestricted access to Gaza for journalists

NEW YORK: More than 130 global leaders of news and press freedom organizations called on world leaders, governments, and international institutions on Thursday to act immediately to ensure journalists from outside Gaza are given immediate, independent access to the territory, in a letter coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters without Borders (RSF).

After 20 months of almost complete exclusion of international media from Gaza, the letter demands the protection of Palestinian journalists currently reporting under siege in the territory.

Israeli authorities have prevented international journalists from entering Gaza since the start of the war, except for brief excursions, tightly controlled by the military.

Meanwhile, local Palestinian journalists have risked their lives to report under extreme conditions of violence, displacement, and hunger. At least 181 journalists and media workers have been killed – 179 of them by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon since the war started, making it the deadliest conflict for the press since CPJ started recording data in 1992.

“When journalists are killed in such unprecedented numbers and independent international media is barred from entering, the world loses its ability to see clearly, to understand fully, and to respond effectively to what is happening.

Access must be restored, and the rights of journalists must be respected,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “Journalists must be allowed to report without fear for their lives.”