Discover Top Posts Tagged with #targeting journalists

Palestinian journalists are risking their lives to counteract the ‘Israeli narrative’

Palestinian journalists are working in ‘dire’ conditions to show the world what is happening in Gaza, despite Israeli forces make it harder

“Reporters working in Gaza told Novara Media they are living and working in constant fear of death. ‘I’m under huge psychological pressure, as I feel I could be killed at any moment,’ said freelancer Rakan Abdelrahman. Last month, three of Abdelrahman’s colleagues were killed while trying to film a building in Gaza which was about to be bombed. Wearing jackets and helmets that clearly identified them as press, the men set up hundreds of metres from the stated target, only for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to instead strike a different building, much nearer to where they were standing.

“Last week, the IDF told Reuters and Agence France Presse it could not guarantee the safety of their journalists in Gaza, leading the news agencies to release a joint statement describing the situation on the ground as ‘dire’. ‘The IDF’s unwillingness to give assurances about the safety of our staff threatens their ability to deliver the news about this conflict without fear of being injured or killed,’ the statement said.

“In its letter to the news agencies, the IDF claimed Hamas is deliberately putting military operations “in the vicinity of journalists and civilians”. But several journalists who spoke to Novara Media said they believe they are being deliberately targeted by Israeli forces. ‘There were threats to several places where I was present, including Hiji Tower and Al-Tabbaa Tower’, said Abed Elhakeem Abo Riash, who has worked as a freelance journalist in Gaza for 14 years. ‘These towers all house the offices of journalists and foreign agencies.’

“Last week, Abo Riash was told to evacuate a residential tower by Israeli forces. He struggled to carry all of his equipment – which included his sleeping gear, two cameras, a laptop and a first aid kit – down from the 14th floor, and feared he would not make it out in time. ‘I was very afraid. The army has mercy on no one,’ he said.”

Israel’s army is using a secret unit to shape narratives around Gaza, portraying Palestinian journalists as Hamas operatives to justify stri

#idf #secret unit #targeting journalists

In case murdering their journalists and the journalists families and bombing their building wasn't enough

I complacently assumed that CBP’s horrendous treatment of migrants wouldn’t affect me directly, least of all in Austin, the city where I was born.

Austin is where I was born and raised, and I usually get waved through immigration after one or two questions. I’m also a white man; more on that later. This time, when my turn came to show my passport, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was more aggressive than usual in his questioning. I told him I’d been in Mexico for seven days for work, that I was a journalist, and that I travel to Mexico often, as he could see from my passport. That wasn’t enough for him, though. He wanted to know the substance of the story I was currently working on, which didn’t sit right with me. I tried to skirt the question, but he came back to it, pointedly.

I was going on three hours of sleep, and I hadn’t had anything to eat in the last 12 hours besides some popcorn and peanuts and a Monster energy drink. Had my blood sugar been higher, I might have cheerfully told him. Instead, I muttered something about not having a legal obligation, under the circumstances, to disclose the contents of my reporting.

The agent, whose name was Moncivias, said we would see about that. He asked me to follow him into the secondary screening area.

“Oh, come on, man,” I said, checking the time on my phone. It was just after noon. “This is going to be a huge waste of time.”

“I’m here all day,” Moncivias said.