Committee to Protect Journalists – Defending Journalists Worldwide.

Media groups urge Israel to open access to Gaza

Palestinian Journalist Sami Shehada, whose leg was amputated following his injury while covering events of Israel's military offensive in Nuseirat in April 2024, resumes covering events for Turkish state broadcaster TRT, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip May 13, 2024. (Photo: Reuters/Doaa Rouga) — Palestinian Journalist Sami Shehada, whose leg was amputated following an Israel-Gaza war injury, resumes covering events for Turkish state broadcaster TRT in in central Gaza on May 13, 2024. (Photo: Reuters/Doaa Rouga)

More than 70 media and civil society organizations have signed an open letter on July 11 urging Israel to give journalists independent access to Gaza.

The organizations—which include the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post—point out that no independent media access to Gaza has been permitted since the start of the war, increasing the pressure on domestic journalists, and creating a space for mis- and disinformation to flourish.

“More than 100 journalists have been killed since the start of the war and those who remain are working in conditions of extreme deprivation. The result is that information from Gaza is becoming harder and harder to obtain and that the reporting which does get through is subject to repeated questions over its veracity,” the organizations say in the letter, which was coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The letter comes ahead of a planned visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States.

–Full coverage of the Israel-Gaza war

Seventh journalist slain this year in Pakistan

CCTV footage shows two men who were on a motorbike and opened fire on Pakistani journalist Malik Hassan Zaib while inside a car on July 14. — CCTV footage shows two men who were on a motorbike and opened fire on Pakistani journalist Malik Hassan Zaib while he was inside a car on July 14. (Screenshot: ARY News/YouTube)

The July 14 shooting of reporter Malik Hassan Zaib has brought the death toll to seven journalists killed in Pakistan since the start of the year.

Hassan Zaib, who worked for the privately owned Urdu-language newspaper Daily Aaj, was in a car with his brother in the northwestern city of Peshawar when two unidentified assailants on a motorbike stopped the vehicle and shot the journalist dead, according to news reports.

“The continued impunity for those who attack journalists is creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in Pakistan, which prevents the practice of free and independent journalism,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna.

CPJ is continuing to investigate the motives behind the attacks.

The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

Learn more about Myat Thu Tan