The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and nine other human rights and press freedom organizations called on the White House and U.S. Congressional leaders to press the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the unprecedented number of journalists killed in the Gaza Strip and the near-total ban on international media entering the Strip, during his visit to Washington D.C. this week.
The letters—signed by Amnesty International USA, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Knight First Amendment Institute, the National Press Club, PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents USA, and the Coalition for Women in Journalism—demand the United States “ensure that Israel ceases the killing of journalists, allows immediate and independent media access to the occupied Gaza Strip, and takes urgent steps to enable the press to report freely throughout Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” while outlining a series of grave press freedom violations and a response of utter impunity.
In a video message to the Israeli Prime Minister released last week, CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said, “More than 100 journalists have been killed. An unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested, often without charge. They have been mistreated and tortured.”
Israel’s longstanding impunity in attacks on journalists has directly impacted the rights and safety of two American journalists: Shireen Abu Akleh (murdered in 2022) and Dylan Collins, who was injured in an October 13 strike by Israel on journalists in southern Lebanon that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded others who wore clearly visible press insignia.
On Sunday, Collins joined his AFP colleague Christina Assi—who lost her right leg in the same attack—as she carried the Olympic flame in Vincennes, France, in honor of journalists killed.
Read the full letter here.
- Sudanese military arrests journalist after he criticized governor on water crisis, sources say
- Croatia’s Melita Vrsaljko attacked twice over report on illegal dumpsite
- Taliban intelligence agents detain culture journalist Sayed Rahim Saeedi
- Egypt arrests 2 journalists in less than a week, refuses to disclose whereabouts
- Turkish Kurdish photojournalist Murat Yazar detained for 8 days in Iraqi Kurdistan
CPJ strongly condemns the sentencing of two U.S. journalists, Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, by Russian courts in closed-door hearings last Friday.
Gershkovich, a reporter with The Wall Street Journal, was sentenced for 16 years on fabricated espionage charges.
“Russia’s decision to jail Evan Gershkovich for 16 years on sham charges is outrageous,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Journalists are not pawns in geopolitical games. It’s time to stop hostage diplomacy and free him immediately.”
Kurmasheva, a U.S.-Russian dual citizen and an editor with the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was sentenced to 6½ years in prison on charges of spreading “fake” news about the Russian army.
“Russia’s appalling assault on the media continues to escalate with the secret sentencing of Alsu Kurmasheva,” said CPJ Director of Advocacy and Communications Gypsy Guillén Kaiser. “The U.S. government should immediately designate Kurmasheva—a dual U.S.-Russian citizen—as ‘wrongfully detained,’ leave no stone unturned to obtain her release, and stop Russia from using journalists as political pawns.”
Both hearings took place on the same day against a backdrop of Russia’s increasing use of in absentia arrest warrants and sentences against exiled Russian journalists.
The U.S. government has designated Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained” by Russia—a move that unlocked a broad U.S. government effort to free him—but has not made the same determination about Kurmasheva.
Separately, this week, the Global Network Initiative, of which CPJ is a member, published a statement expressing its concern about the latest draft of the United Nations Cybercrime Convention.
What we are reading (and watching)
- Journalists under fire in Gaza: A talk with Motaz Azaiza — Columbia Journalism School
- How Americans get local political news — Luxuan Wang, Michael Lipka, Katerina Eva Matsa, Christopher St. Aubin and Elisa Shearer, Pew Research Center
- New documentary shows Mexican journalists have nowhere to turn — Melissa Esquivias, Global Investigative Journalism Network
- Protect journalist-source confidentiality — democracy depends on it — Vanessa Leggett, Austin American-Statesman
- Africans’ commitment to democracy undermined by poor political performance, but not economic failures, Afrobarometer inaugural flagship report reveals — Afrobarometer
- The new criminal laws and their impact on freedom of expression — Free Speech Collective
- This California city lost its daily newspapers. It faces a crisis over what comes next — Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times
Join us on Tuesday, July 30 for a virtual webinar, “Protecting mental health in the face of online and offline attacks,” part of our U.S. Election Safety Summer! Designed to equip journalists with safety tools for journalists to cover the U.S. elections, the series is organized by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Women’s Media Foundation and PEN America.