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Category: Media

  • Chris Hedges Report: Israel, Charlie Kirk, And Weaponization Of Murder

    Charlie Kirk’s assassination will likely serve as the crux of a new era of political violence and repression in the United States. In the days since Kirk was shot at a speaking event at Utah Valley University, right-wing groups and figures have demanded mass censorship of all critical online speech directed at Kirk. President Donald Trump has effectively attributed the attack to the “radical left” and vowed to go after those he deems responsible. Mass doxing campaigns targeting people who contextualized Kirk’s politics or celebrated his killing has led to firings across the country.

    Amid the online chaos, narratives surrounding Kirk’s assassin, stemming from incomplete reporting from mainstream outlets and a lack of clear analysis by the FBI, have further fueled confusion and outrage across the political spectrum.

    The post Chris Hedges Report: Israel, Charlie Kirk, And Weaponization Of Murder appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Australia must lead on comms sovereignty: Shadow Minister

    Shadow Communications Minister Melissa McIntosh has warned that Australia is falling behind on the basics of communications sovereignty, urging the federal government to bolster Australian ownership and control over critical parts of the system or risk losing control of our digital future. “It is time to lead,” Ms McIntosh said in an opinion piece this…

    The post Australia must lead on comms sovereignty: Shadow Minister appeared first on InnovationAus.com.

    This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.

  • MI5 concedes it ‘unlawfully’ obtained data from former BBC journalist

    Revelation relating to then Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent, Vincent Kearney, a ‘matter of grave concern’

    MI5 has conceded it “unlawfully” obtained the communications data of a former BBC journalist, in what was claimed to be an unprecedented admission from the security services.

    The BBC said it was a “matter of grave concern” that the agency had obtained communications data from the mobile phone of Vincent Kearney, a former BBC Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Psyop Landfill

    The post Psyop Landfill first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Australia Excludes the Pacific Island Press Corps

    Bullies, never able to hit upwards, always kick down.  The United States beats their vassals in the Indo-Pacific and Europe with vulgar presumption.  Their vassals kick down to their own appointees, expecting compliance and respect to various degrees.  Australia, long known as Washington’s regional deputy sheriff, looks down on its Pacific Island neighbours as basket cases for charity, potential enclaves for terrorism, and vulnerable to the temptation of rival powers.  The language of a relationship falsely described as friendship is better seen as one of financial asymmetry, strategic use and a mockery trapped in the formaldehyde of colonialism.  Australians are both confused tourists and mercenaries in the region – and it shows.

    On the sidelines of the 54th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Honiara in the Solomon Islands, Australian officials had made it clear that all Pacific Island media would have no role in covering the September 10 press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, held, with boisterous irony, at a sports facility funded by the People’s Republic of China.  Papua New Guinea’s National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was told that “the presser was only for Australian journalists.”

    When he was asked by an Australian journalist, Stefan Armbruster, about the bar on Pacific journalists attending the press gathering, the words, delivered with snotty indifference were: “I don’t know what you are talking about mate.”  Armbruster expressed his dissatisfaction with the whole matter, insisting that this had “to stop and Pacific journalists treated with respect.”

    The Fijian Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, tried to soften matters by assuming that this was an entirely Australian matter, and therefore something for the Australian Prime Minister and his coddling minders.  Landlords, it would seem, must have their day, while native scribblers should repair elsewhere.  “The press conference was his so his press people would have made that arrangement, and they might have restricted access to it, and it’s got nothing to do with the Pacific Island Forum.”  The Fiji Sun was less accommodating, complaining that “the exclusion was both confusing and detrimental to the representation of regional media.”  The decision threatened “to reinforce a narrative that Australia is more focused on controlling its own story than on being a responsible regional partner to Pacific communities.” Rarely has a paper been so relevantly sharp.

    On September 12, the Pacific Freedom Forum released a message condemning the exclusion.  “This ‘shameful’ act represents a direct assault on press freedom and democratic principles within our Pacific region,” complained the PFF chair from the Solomon Islands, Robert Iroga.  “You cannot claim to be part of the Pacific family while silencing Pacific voices.  You cannot talk about partnership while blocking journalists from doing their jobs.  This cannot happen in our region, at our own forum.”   He went on to fume that, “The decision to restrict media access exclusively to Australian outlets while excluding regional journalists demonstrates a troubling disregard for transparency and democratic accountability.”

    Appositely enough, these complaints mirror a state of constrictive circumstances that affect Australia’s own relationship with the United States, the paternal bully and Freudian Daddy Canberra struggles to do without.  Australian officials do little to enlighten the press corps in their country about what, exactly, is going on with such momentous agreements as AUKUS, or the next security bash with America’s uniformed finest.  Canberra’s near criminal expenditure on nuclear powered submarines that Australia will never have with any degree of autonomy, in exchange for bolstering US naval shipyards and creating imperial naval hubs in Australia for deployments against China, is something that the Albanese government remains silent about.  Their preference is to do things in plain sight.

    Better information, without exception, is always to be found in the US State Department and the Pentagon.  The US intelligence facility in Pine Gap in the Northern Territory, ostensibly described as a jointly run outfit with Australian personnel, does nothing to inform the residents of the territory, or of Australia, about its role in maintaining US hegemony.  Guest lists to events on the base rarely feature locals, and certainly not the local political representative.  The facilities have, with little doubt, been used for such unsavoury acts as directing drone strikes against areas of the world most Americans, or Australians, would be unable to locate, spells of strategic bombing, and sharing intelligence with allies no Australian journalist would ever be allowed to officially confirm.

    It may well be that the Albanese government’s inexorable gravitation to secrecy is starting to look, rather disconcertingly, like that of his pathologically clandestine predecessor, Scott Morrison.  Exuding the confidence that comes from a heaving electoral majority, and the concern that his policies might be subjected to greater scrutiny than he would wish, Albanese is embracing the dark magic of the controlled narrative, the heavily curated truth.  If so, such moves are cloddish, insensitive and foolish to the vulnerable island states whose support he so desperately needs.  “Not to put too fine a point on it,” suggests Dan McGarry of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, “but if Australia wants the Pacific to choose it over China, maybe it should make the differences easier, not harder to see.”

    The post Australia Excludes the Pacific Island Press Corps first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • How Immigrant Communities Are Reclaiming Media on Their Own Terms

    In an age of relentless misinformation, immigrant communities in the United States are not just resisting—they are rebuilding. While corporate and legacy news outlets often filter immigrant experiences through sensationalism, victimization, or meritocratic tropes, independent and bilingual media are quietly transforming how stories of migration are told. And in doing so, they’re also restoring something journalism has long struggled to offer immigrant communities: trust.

    When official channels fail, whether due to linguistic barriers, legal repression, or outright neglect, immigrants turn to each other. From Spanish-language radio to WhatsApp news bulletins, the rise of community-rooted journalism shows that mutual aid is not only about sharing food, shelter, or legal advice. It’s also about sharing information—fast, culturally attuned, and free from the fear of state surveillance.

    The Need for New Narratives

    Traditional narratives about immigrants often fall into two categories: the idealized “model immigrant” (valedictorians, doctors, and entrepreneurs) or the demonized “illegal alien.” This binary leaves little room for the majority of immigrants whose lives fall outside those extremes—day laborers, domestic workers, asylum seekers, families navigating mixed-status households.

    Frustrated by this lack of nuance, many immigrant communities have built their own storytelling ecosystems. These are not just emergency alternatives to most news. They are long-standing infrastructures that predate the digital age and have evolved into powerful networks of survival, culture, and resistance.

    The Subversive Power of Spanish-Language Radio

    Take, for instance, Spanish-language radio. In places like the US-Mexico borderlands and immigrant-heavy neighborhoods across the country, radio has become a lifeline. As reported in High Country News, Spanish-language stations often serve as hyperlocal information hubs, broadcasting everything from ICE raid alerts to tenant rights, COVID-19 safety updates, and neighborhood organizing meetings. What makes these broadcasts powerful isn’t just the information, but the tone: intimate, familiar, and deeply rooted in community values.

    For many undocumented listeners, this format offers something the government and corporate media cannot: safety. Unlike online platforms like Facebook or Twitter, which are surveilled by ICE through data brokers and keyword-tracking software, radio remains difficult to monitor en masse. What’s more, many stations allow for anonymous call-ins or listener requests, preserving both privacy and participation.

    WhatsApp Journalism

    While radio lays the groundwork, messaging apps like WhatsApp have exploded in popularity among immigrant communities as trusted news delivery systems. Why? Because they are encrypted, peer-to-peer, and resistant to algorithmic censorship. In cities like Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles, organizers use WhatsApp groups to circulate flyers about know-your-rights workshops, eyewitness updates during ICE raids, or rapid-response legal resources. Sometimes, these groups reach hundreds of members in minutes.

    One standout example is El Timpano, an Oakland-based outlet that has pioneered Spanish-language, text-message-based reporting tailored to the city’s Latino immigrant population. Their reporters use survey tools and direct outreach to ask residents what they want to know about housing, jobs, and local politics, and then deliver the answers right to their phones.

    This method flips the traditional journalism model on its head. Rather than assuming what audiences want, El Timpano lets the audience lead.

    Grassroots Media as Mutual Aid

    This participatory, community-first model echoes mutual aid philosophies that have guided immigrant survival for decades. During the pandemic, groups like Make the Road NY and Mijente didn’t wait for traditional media to validate their concerns. They built their own communication networks, livestreams, newsletters, and social media blasts that combined real-time reporting with calls to action.

    What ties these projects together is a deep respect for the lived knowledge within immigrant communities. Outlets like Prism Reports, El Tecolote in San Francisco, and Documented NY don’t parachute in to cover a story—they already live it. Their reporters are often first-generation themselves, multilingual, and understand the stakes firsthand.

    Rebuilding Trust, One Story at a Time

    One of the most insidious effects of anti-immigrant policies, from surveillance tech to detention center gag rules, is the erosion of trust. When ICE agents impersonate police or social workers, when newsrooms repeat official statements without scrutiny, immigrants learn to keep their heads down and stay silent. Restoring that trust means going hyperlocal, multilingual, and deeply relational.

    These independent immigrant-led media outlets are working. They’re informing. They’re protecting. And they’re reminding us that journalism at its best is not a spectacle, it’s a service.

    Lessons for the Wider Media Landscape

    There’s much that legacy outlets can learn from these efforts. First, abandon the savior narrative. Immigrants are not waiting to be “given a voice,” they’re already speaking, loudly and clearly. Second, invest in multilingual reporting not as a side project, but as central to newsroom equity. And finally, respect local knowledge. The people most affected by immigration policy are often the most equipped to explain its impacts.

    Journalism schools and philanthropic funders, too, have a role to play. Support youth storytelling projects, such as 826 Valencia, Define American, and Radio Pulso. Train and hire more bilingual reporters. Fund community media with the same urgency given to big tech “misinformation” efforts. Because the misinformation that harms immigrant communities often isn’t just falsehoods, it’s omission, dehumanization, and erasure.

    A Media Future Rooted in Dignity

    In the face of deportation raids, algorithmic surveillance, and the constant threat of detention, immigrants are doing more than surviving; they’re documenting. And they’re doing it on their own terms.

    When traditional media ask how to regain trust, the answer isn’t just better fact-checking or polished podcasts. The answer may lie in a WhatsApp chain warning neighbors of an unmarked ICE van. In a late-night radio broadcast about workers’ rights. In a text from a community reporter who listens before they report.

    In these everyday acts of media-making, dignity persists. And so does resistance.

    The post How Immigrant Communities Are Reclaiming Media on Their Own Terms first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • What Happens to Stories About Palestine in U.S. Newsrooms?

    Our latest visual, created in partnership with Prism Reports, visualizes a months-long Prism investigation conducted by journalist Laura Albast, on pro-Israel bias in mainstream U.S. newsrooms, particularly after Oct. 7, 2023.

    Read the full investigation here. Special thanks to Yara Ramadan for her design collaboration on this visual.

    The report takes a deep, investigative dive into the experiences of repression and silencing that journalists face in the U.S. while attempting to cover the genocide accurately and factually. This collaboration between Prism and Visualizing Palestine reveals and illustrates what happens to stories about Palestine in U.S. newsrooms, from inception to reporting, editing, and publication.










    Albast spoke with nearly a dozen journalists across the U.S. who described resistance from editors and managers surrounding coverage that centered, or even mentioned, Palestinians. Journalists, who are either Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim, told Prism that they were shut out of coverage around Israel’s genocide in Gaza, while white, Jewish, or Israeli—oftentimes former soldiers —journalists took the lead. They said they witnessed Palestinian voices and stories being quashed, as external Zionist groups unleashed campaigns of complaints and harassment against such reporting.

    Albast deftly pulls together firsthand accounts from journalists and investigations that demonstrate pro-Israel bias at newsrooms like The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and even progressive media organizations like More Perfect Union. As anti-genocide readers turn away from complicit media, many turn to independent media that align with their values. While much of this reporting centers on Palestinian journalists in the U.S., Albast also includes non-Palestinian reporters, whose experiences underscore how even those more broadly connected to the region, as well as those trying to tell the truth, can be sidelined. We are left to ask, however, what does the future hold for these journalists in the U.S.?

    The post What Happens to Stories About Palestine in U.S. Newsrooms? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Young People Must Choose: Economic Democracy or No Democracy

    What’s the best way to pass on what you learned from more than a half century of left-wing doing, reading, writing, talking and thinking?

    Write a book. This was especially obvious to a retired union-activist-journalist-novelist grandfather. So, I did. Started writing a book tentatively titled Economic Democracy or No Democracy — An Anti Oligarchy Manifesto.

    But then I actually listened to my grandchildren and learned they don’t read much. Instead, their pipeline to understanding the world is social media, mostly memes and videos, few of which exceed five minutes of attention span. At first, I argued with them. “You should read. Much more. Opens your mind to places, experiences, ideas …”

    They try to be polite to grandpa but there’s no mistaking the disinterest as cellphone-induced zombie (perhaps Zen-like?) eyes stare at a screen on the table instead of me.

    How to respond? What to do? Decades of union organizing has taught me the importance of listening. Meeting people where they are at. Following their lead rather than trying to impose an ‘organizing template’ on them. The most successful organizing drives are ones in which the ‘organizer’ is a resource, an assistant in a process where the unorganized transform themselves into the organized. “The union is U” — an old slogan expressing a fundamental truth.

    So, how to meet my grandchildren and other young people where they are at? How to say something they might consider listening to?

    Perhaps these are questions someone two generations removed can never really answer. Certainly, in the late 1960s and early ’70s, when I was the ages of my two oldest grandchildren there was no way most ‘old people’ were deemed worthy of even asking their opinion about war, politics and life in general, let alone the really important issues of the day like sex, relationships and feminism.

    Still, it is important for a socialist and union elder to try passing on at least a few things that might help young people today learn from our experiences — successes and, most of all, failures. According to a TV documentary about elephants, the oldest females are the ones able to lead the herd to faraway, lifesaving watering holes in times of drought.

    Surely this era of climate-change-ignoring-billionaire-emperor CEOs, ‘free-world’-supported- live-streamed genocide, Donald Trump and all the other authoritarian, about-to-turn-fascistic ‘world leaders’ is at least the human political equivalent of a savannah drought.

    We are in a crisis almost certainly about to get worse and the young ones need our working-class socialism, union-movement elderly-elephant-like accumulated knowledge to survive. It is up to us whose tusks are falling out to do what we can to save the herd.

    So, I taught myself how to make videos, created the Your Socialist Grandfather YouTube channel and turned my book manuscript into 43 five-minute-or-so-long videos. I call it a video book and the first few episodes are already live on YouTube with a new one added every second day.

    Mostly the free videos are about creating a new inclusive language of economic democracy to replace the old socialist/Marxist/anarchist jargon that divided us and to understand capitalism as another in a long line of tiny minorities attempting to rule over the vast majority.

    As Your Socialist Grandfather sees it, ‘the left’ must get back to what was its original reason for existence — to fight for one-person, one vote democracy in the economic as well as political systems that govern our lives. To achieve our goals, we must get rid of capitalist dictatorship in our economy and workplaces as well as oligarchy/authoritarianism in our political systems. We must challenge capitalists’ claim to “own” our economies.

    The post Young People Must Choose: Economic Democracy or No Democracy first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Propaganda 101: The Illusion Of Truth

    The Israeli crimes perpetrated AFTER October 7th 2023 represent the reason why the October 7th events unfolded. 

    You read that correctly, but I’ll say it again: the Israeli crimes perpetrated AFTER October 7th are why the heroic Palestinian resistance (i.e. Hamas) attacked the Nazi Zionist apartheid terrorist entity to begin with.

    But what happened on October 7th? 

    This is something that’s been discussed extensively; discussed honestly only in rare cases, but distorted, misinterpreted and lied about the vast majority of the time. 

    This is because the doctrine/policy of (pro-)Israeli propagandists and their allies – the prostitutes of propaganda- such as CNN, the BBC, Fox News, Talk TV and countless others, conforms to the Nazi practices of Hitler and his minister Joseph Goebbels. 

    The post Propaganda 101: The Illusion Of Truth appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Propaganda 101: The Illusion Of Truth

    The Israeli crimes perpetrated AFTER October 7th 2023 represent the reason why the October 7th events unfolded. 

    You read that correctly, but I’ll say it again: the Israeli crimes perpetrated AFTER October 7th are why the heroic Palestinian resistance (i.e. Hamas) attacked the Nazi Zionist apartheid terrorist entity to begin with.

    But what happened on October 7th? 

    This is something that’s been discussed extensively; discussed honestly only in rare cases, but distorted, misinterpreted and lied about the vast majority of the time. 

    This is because the doctrine/policy of (pro-)Israeli propagandists and their allies – the prostitutes of propaganda- such as CNN, the BBC, Fox News, Talk TV and countless others, conforms to the Nazi practices of Hitler and his minister Joseph Goebbels. 

    The post Propaganda 101: The Illusion Of Truth appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Local journalists and fixers are dying at unprecedented rates in Gaza. Can anyone protect them?

    ANALYSIS: By Simon Levett, University of Technology Sydney

    Journalist Mariam Dagga was just 33 when she was brutally killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on August 25.

    As a freelance photographer and videographer, she had captured the suffering in Gaza through indelible images of malnourished children and grief-stricken families. In her will, she told her colleagues not to cry and her 13-year-old son to make her proud.

    Dagga was killed alongside four other journalists — and 16 others — in an attack on a hospital that has drawn widespread condemnation and outrage.

    This attack followed the killings of six Al Jazeera journalists by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in a tent housing journalists in Gaza City earlier on August 10. The dead included Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anas al-Sharif.

    A montage of killed Palestinian journalists
    A montage of killed Palestinian journalists . . . Shireen Abu Akleh (from left), Mariam Dagga, Hossam Shabat, Anas Al-Sharif and Yasser Murtaja. Image: Montage/The Conversation

    Israel’s nearly two-year war in Gaza is among the deadliest in modern times. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which has tracked journalist deaths globally since 1992, has counted a staggering 189 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since the war began. Two other counts more widely cited have ranged between 248 and 272

    Many of the journalists worked as freelancers for major news organisations since Israel has banned foreign correspondents from entering Gaza.

    In addition, the organisation has confirmed the killings of two Israeli journalists, along with six journalists killed in Israel’s strikes on Lebanon.

     

    ‘It was very traumatising for me’
    I went to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israel and Ramallah in the West Bank in 2019 to conduct part of my PhD research on the available protections for journalists in conflict zones.

    During that time, I interviewed journalists from major international outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN, BBC and others, in addition to local Palestinian freelance journalists and fixers. I also interviewed a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera English, with whom I remained in contact until recently.

    I did not visit Gaza due to safety concerns. However, many of the journalists had reported from there and were familiar with the conditions, which were dangerous even before the war.

    Osama Hassan, a local journalist, told me about working in the West Bank:

    “There are no rules, there’s no safety. Sometimes, when settlers attack a village, for example, we go to cover, but Israeli soldiers don’t respect you, they don’t respect anything called Palestinian […] even if you are a journalist.”

    Nuha Musleh, a fixer in Jerusalem, described an incident that occurred after a stone was thrown towards IDF soldiers:

    “[…] they started shooting right and left – sound bombs, rubber bullets, one of which landed in my leg. I was taken to hospital. The correspondent also got injured. The Israeli cameraman also got injured. So all of us got injured, four of us.

    “It was very traumatising for me. I never thought that a sound bomb could be that harmful. I was in hospital for a good week. Lots of stitches.”

    Better protections for local journalists and fixers
    My research found there is very little support for local journalists and fixers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in terms of physical protection, and no support in terms of their mental health.

    International law mandates that journalists are protected as civilians in conflict zones under the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols. However, these laws have not historically extended protections specific to the needs of journalists.

    Media organisations, media rights groups and governments have been unequivocal in their demands that Israel take greater precautions to protect journalists in Gaza and investigate strikes like the one that killed Mariam Dagga.

    London-based artist Nishita Jha (@NishSwish) illustrated this tribute to the slain Gaza journalist Mariam Dagga
    London-based artist Nishita Jha (@NishSwish) illustrated this tribute to the slain Gaza journalist Mariam Dagga. Image: The Fuller Project

    Sadly, there is seemingly little media organisations can do to help their freelance contributors in Gaza beyond issuing statements noting concern for their safety, lobbying Israel to allow evacuations, and demanding access for foreign reporters to enter the strip.

    International correspondents typically have training on reporting from war zones, in addition to safety equipment, insurance and risk assessment procedures. However, local journalists and fixers in Gaza do not generally have access to the same protections, despite bearing the brunt of the effects of war, which includes mass starvation.

    Despite the enormous difficulties, I believe media organisations must strive to meet their employment law obligations, to the best of their ability, when it comes to local journalists and fixers. This is part of their duty of care.

    For example, research shows fixers have long been the “most exploited and persecuted people” contributing to the production of international news. They are often thrust into precarious situations without hazardous environment training or medical insurance. And many times, they are paid very little for their work.

    Local journalists and fixers in Gaza must be paid properly by the media organisations hiring them. This should take into consideration not just the woeful conditions they are forced to work and live in, but the immense impact of their jobs on their mental health.

    As the global news director for Agence France-Presse said recently, paying local contributors is very difficult — they often bear huge transaction costs to access their money.

    “We try to compensate by paying more to cover that,” he said.

    But he did not address whether the agency would change its security protocols and training for conflict zones, given journalists themselves are being targeted in Gaza in their work.

    These local journalists are literally putting their lives on the line to show the world what’s happening in Gaza. They need greater protections.

    As Ammar Awad, a local photographer in the West Bank, told me:

    “The photographer does not care about himself. He cares about the pictures, how he can shoot good pictures, to film something good.

    “But he needs to be in a good place that is safe for him.”The Conversation

    Simon Levett is a PhD candidate in public international law, University of Technology Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Nepal orders ban on major social media platforms

    New Delhi, September 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists warns that the Nepali government’s decision to block access to social media platforms across the country will seriously hinder journalists’ work and people’s access to news and information. 

    “Nepal’s sweeping ban on social media sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom,” said CPJ Regional Director Beh Lih Yi. “Blocking online news platforms vital to journalists will undermine reporting and the public’s right to information. The government must immediately rescind this order and restore access to social media platforms, which are essential tools for exercising press freedom.” 

    On Thursday, Nepal’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology directed the Nepal Telecommunications Authority to immediately shut down access to platforms that had failed to heed an August 25 Cabinet directive requiring foreign social media and online streaming platforms to register within seven days.

    The Supreme Court also ruled on August 17 that online platforms must be registered before operating in Nepal, so as to monitor misinformation.

    Platforms’ internet access may be restored gradually if they initiate the registration process, according to a copy of the ministry’s September 4 directive, reviewed by CPJ.

    The Japanese-owned app Viber and Chinese-owned TikTok have registered, while most major Western platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and X have not, newsreports said.

    Communication Ministry Secretary Radhika Aryal did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. However, in an interview with the news site Corporate Nepal, she said that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, had repeatedly refused government requests to register.

    Meta, X, and Google, which owns YouTube, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Great Hoax Against Venezuela: Oil Geopolitics Disguised As ‘War On Drugs’

    During my time as head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), I frequently travelled to Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, but never to Venezuela. There was simply no need.

    The Venezuelan government’s collaboration in the fight against drug trafficking was among the best in South America, rivalled only by Cuba’s impeccable record. This makes Trump’s narrative of a “narco-state” in Venezuela sound like geopolitically motivated slander.

    The 2025 World Drug Report tells a story that is the opposite of the narrative peddled by the Trump administration. Piece by piece, the report dismantles the geopolitical lie built around the “Cartel de los Soles”, an entity as mythical as the Loch Ness Monster, but which is useful for justifying sanctions, blockades and threats of military intervention against a country which, incidentally, sits on one of the planet’s largest oil reserves.

    The post The Great Hoax Against Venezuela: Oil Geopolitics Disguised As ‘War On Drugs’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Azerbaijan brings new charges against Meydan TV, arrests another journalist

    New York, September 3, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Azerbaijani authorities’ addition of seven new charges against 10 incarcerated journalists in relation to a currency smuggling case against the independent outlet Meydan TV, as well as the arrest of photojournalist Ahmad Mukhtar.

    “The latest financial crimes charges against the prize-winning Azerbaijani outlet Meydan TV echo those recently used to sentence seven other journalists to lengthy prison terms, underlining the unprecedented scale of Azerbaijan’s drive to crush the independent press,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Azerbaijan should release more than two dozen journalists and media workers unjustly incarcerated in their recent crackdown, including the latest detainee, Ahmad Mukhtar.”

    On August 28, 10 journalists — arrested on currency smuggling charges involving Berlin-based Meydan TV on the dates below — were charged with seven additional crimes, including illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, and money laundering:

    • December: Meydan TV’s Natig Javadli, Khayala Aghayeva, Aytaj Tapdig, Aynur Elgunesh, Aysel Umudova, and Ramin Jabrayilzade.
    • February: independent journalist Shamshad Agha, who works with Meydan TV.
    • May: independent journalist Ulviyya Ali, who has denied any affiliation with Meydan TV. 

    The charges are identical to those against the seven journalists linked to Abzas Media, carrying a sentence of up to 12 years. Since late 2023, at least 21 journalists and media workers have been jailed on allegations of illegal Western donor funding, as relations with the West deteriorate.

    On August 28, a court remanded Mukhtar in pretrial detention for 40 days. He was previously arrested in December with six Meydan TV journalists and accused of smuggling money. He served a 20-day sentence on separate charges of hooliganism and disobeying police. CPJ was unable to determine the latest charges against Mukhtar.

    Authorities have accused several leading independent outlets of failing to obtain the legally required approval for foreign grants. Defense lawyers argue that this omission is punishable by fines, not criminal sanctions.

    Exiled human rights lawyer Subhan Hasanli told CPJ that authorities generally refuse to register independent organizations seeking foreign grants, making it impossible to legally receive them.

    CPJ emailed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which oversees the police, for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Chris Hedges: The betrayal of Palestinian journalists

    Western reporters are full partners in the genocide. They amplify Israeli lies, which they know are lies, betraying Palestinian colleagues who are slandered, targeted and killed by Israel.

    ANALYSIS: By Chris Hedges

    There are two types of war correspondents. The first type does not attend press conferences. They do not beg generals and politicians for interviews. They take risks to report from combat zones.

    They send back to their viewers or readers what they see, which is almost always diametrically opposed to official narratives. This first type, in every war, is a tiny minority.

    Then there is the second type, the inchoate blob of self-identified war correspondents who play at war. Despite what they tell editors and the public, they have no intention of putting themselves in danger.

    They are pleased with the Israeli ban on foreign reporters into Gaza. They plead with officials for background briefings and press conferences. They collaborate with their government minders who impose restrictions and rules that keep them out of combat.

    They slavishly disseminate whatever they are fed by officials, much of which is a lie, and pretend it is news. They join little jaunts arranged by the military — dog and pony shows — where they get to dress up and play soldier and visit outposts where everything is controlled and choreographed.

    The mortal enemy of these poseurs are the real war reporters, in this case, Palestinian journalists in Gaza. These reporters expose them as toadies and sycophants, discrediting nearly everything they disseminate. For this reason, the poseurs never pass up a chance to question the veracity and motives of those in the field.

    I watched these snakes do this repeatedly to my colleague Robert Fisk.

    Took huge hit
    When war reporter Ben Anderson arrived at the hotel where journalists covering the war in Liberia were encamped — in his words getting “drunk” at bars “on expenses,” having affairs and exchanging “information rather than actually going out and getting information” — his image of war reporters took a huge hit.

    “I thought, finally, I’m amongst my heroes,” Anderson recalls. “This is where I’ve wanted to be for years. And then me and the cameraman I was with — who knew the rebels very well — he took us out for about three weeks with the rebels.

    “We came back to Monrovia. The guys in the hotel bar said, ‘Where have you been? We thought you’d gone home.’ We said, ‘We went out to cover the war. Isn’t that our job? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?’

    “The romantic view I had of foreign correspondents was suddenly destroyed in Liberia,” he went on. “I thought, actually, a lot of these guys are full of shit. They’re not even willing to leave the hotel, let alone leave the safety of the capital and actually do some reporting.”

    You can see an interview I did with Anderson here.

    This dividing line, which occurred in every war I covered, defines the reporting on the genocide in Gaza. It is not a divide of professionalism or culture. Palestinian reporters expose Israeli atrocities and implode Israeli lies. The rest of the press does not.

    Palestinian journalists, targeted and assassinated by Israel, pay — as many great war correspondents do — with their lives, although in far greater numbers.

    Israel has murdered 245 journalists in Gaza by one count and more than 273 by another. The goal is to shroud the genocide in darkness.

    No other war close
    No war I covered comes close to these numbers of dead. Since October 7, Israel has killed more journalists “than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined.” Journalists in Palestine leave wills and recorded videos to be read or played at their death.

    A funeral for Palestine TV correspondent Mohammed Abu Hatab
    A funeral for Palestine TV correspondent Mohammed Abu Hatab. Hatab was killed, along with his family members, in an airstrike on his home in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Image: Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images

    The colleagues of these Palestinian journalists in the Western press broadcast from the border fence with Gaza decked out in flak jackets and helmets, where they have as much chance of being hit by shrapnel or a bullet as being struck by an asteroid. They scurry like lemmings to briefings by Israeli officials. They are not only the enemies of truth, but also the enemies of journalists doing the real work of war reporting.

    When Iraqi troops attacked the Saudi border town of Khafji during the first Gulf War, Saudi soldiers fled in panic. Two French photographers and I watched frantic soldiers commandeering fire trucks and racing south. US Marines pushed the Iraqis back.

    But in Riyadh, the press was told of our gallant Saudi allies defending their homeland. Once fighting ended, the press bus stopped a few miles down the road from Khafji. The pool reporters clambered out, escorted by military minders. They did stand-ups with the distant sound of artillery and smoke as a backdrop and repeated the lies the Pentagon wanted to tell.

    Meanwhile, the two photographers and I were detained and beaten by enraged Saudi military police, furious that we had documented the panicked flight of Saudi forces, as we tried to leave Khafji.

    My refusal to abide by press restrictions in the first Gulf War saw the other New York Times reporters in Saudi Arabia write a letter to the foreign editor saying I was ruining the paper’s relationship with the military. If not for the intervention of R.W. “Johnny” Apple, who had covered Vietnam, I would have been sent back to New York.

    I do not fault anyone for not wanting to go into a war zone. This is a sign of normality. It is rational. It is understandable. Those of us who volunteer to go into combat — my colleague Clyde Haberman at The New York Times once quipped “Hedges will parachute into a war with or without a parachute” — have obvious personality defects.

    Pretend war correspondents
    But I fault those who pretend to be war correspondents. They do tremendous damage. They peddle false narratives. They mask reality. They serve as witting — or unwitting — propagandists. They discredit the voices of the victims and exonerate the killers.

    When I covered the war in El Salvador, before I worked for The New York Times, the paper’s correspondent dutifully regurgitated whatever the embassy fed her. This had the effect of making my editors — as well as editors of the other correspondents who did report the war– question our veracity and “impartiality.”

    It made it harder for readers to understand what was happening. The false narrative neutered and often overpowered the real one.

    The slander used to discredit my Palestinian colleagues — claiming they are members of Hamas — is sadly familiar. Many Palestinian reporters I know in Gaza are, in fact, quite critical of Hamas. But even if they have ties with Hamas, so what?

    Israel’s attempt to justify targeting journalists from the Hamas-run al-Aqsa media network is also a violation of Article 79 of the Geneva Convention.

    I worked with reporters and photographers who had a wide variety of beliefs, including Marxist-Leninists in Central America. This did not prevent them from being honest. I was in Bosnia and Kosovo with a Spanish cameraman, Miguel Gil Moreno, who was later killed with my friend Kurt Schork.

    Miguel was a member of the right-wing Catholic group Opus Dei. He was also a journalist of tremendous courage, great compassion and moral probity, despite his opinions about Spain’s fascist ruler Francisco Franco. He did not lie.

    Seeking to crush
    In every war I covered, I was attacked as supporting or belonging to whatever group the government, including the US government, was seeking to crush. I was accused of being a tool of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front in El Salvador, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, Hamas, the Muslim-led government in Bosnia and the Kosovo Liberation Army.

    John Simpson of the BBC, like many Western reporters, argues that the “world needs honest, unbiased eyewitness reporting to help people make up their minds about the major issues of our time. This has so far been impossible in Gaza.”

    The assumption that if Western reporters were in Gaza the coverage would improve is risible. Trust me. It would not.

    Israel bans the foreign press because there is a bias in Europe and the United States in favour of reporting by Western reporters. Israel is aware that the scale of the genocide is too vast for Western outlets to hide or obscure, despite all the ink and airtime they give to Israeli and US apologists.

    Israel also cannot continue its systematic campaign of annihilation of journalists in Gaza if it has to contend with foreign media in its midst.

    Israeli lies amplified by Western media outlets, including my former employer The New York Times, are worthy of Pravda. Beheaded babies. Babies cooked in ovens. Mass rape by Hamas. Errant Palestinian rockets that cause explosions at hospitals and massacre civilians. Secret command tunnels and command centers in schools and hospitals. Journalists who direct Hamas rocket units. Protesters of the genocide on college campuses who are antisemites and supporters of Hamas.

    Israel ‘lies like it breathes’
    I covered the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, much of that time in Gaza, for seven years. If there is one indisputable fact, it is that Israel lies like it breathes. The decision by Western reporters to give credibility to these lies, to give them the same weight as documented Israeli atrocities, is a cynical game.

    The reporters know these lies are lies. But they, and the news outlets that employ them, prize access — in this case access to Israeli and US officials — above truth. The reporters, as well as their editors and publishers, fear becoming targets of Israel and the powerful Israel lobby.

    There is no cost for betraying the Palestinians. They are powerless.

    Call those lies out and you will swiftly find your requests for briefings and interviews with officials rebuffed. You won’t be invited by press officers to participate in staged visits to Israeli military units. You and your news organisation will be viciously attacked.

    You will be left out in the cold. Your editors will terminate your assignment or your employment. This is not good for careers. And so, the lies are dutifully repeated, no matter how absurd.

    It is pathetic watching these reporters and their news outlets, as Fisk writes, fight “like tigers to join these ‘pools’ in which they would be censored, restrained and deprived of all freedom of movement on the battlefield”.

    When Middle East Eye journalists Mohamed Salama and Ahmed Abu Aziz, along with Reuters photojournalist Hussam al-Masri, and freelancers Moaz Abu Taha, and Mariam Dagga — who had worked with several media outlets, including the Associated Press — were killed in a “double tap” strike — designed to kill first responders arriving to treat casualties from initial strikes — at Nasser Medical Complex, how did Western news agencies respond?

    ‘Hamas camera’
    “Israeli military says strikes on Gaza hospital targeted what it says was a Hamas camera,” the Associated Press reported.

    “IDF claims hospital strike was aimed at Hamas camera,” announced CNN.

    “Israel army says six ‘terrorists’ killed in Monday strikes on Gaza hospital,” the AFP headline read.

    “Initial inquiry says Hamas camera was target of Israeli strike that killed journalists,” Reuters said.

    “Israel claims troops saw Hamas camera before deadly hospital attack,” Sky News explained.

    Just for the record, the camera belonged to Reuters, which said Israel was “fully aware” the news agency was filming from the hospital.

    When Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and three other journalists were killed on August 10 in their media tent near al-Shifa Hospital, how was it reported in the Western press?

    Pulitzer prize-winner
    “Israel Kills Al Jazeera Journalist It Says Was Hamas Leader,” Reuters titled its story, despite the fact al-Sharif was part of a Reuters team that won a 2024 Pulitzer Prize.

    The German newspaper Bild, published a front page story headlined: “Terrorist disguised as a journalist killed in Gaza.”

    The barrage of Israeli lies amplified and given credibility by the Western press violates a fundamental tenet of journalism, the duty to transmit the truth to the viewer or reader.

    It legitimizes mass slaughter. It refuses to hold Israel to account. It betrays Palestinian journalists, those reporting and being killed in Gaza. And it exposes the bankruptcy of Western journalists, whose primary attributes are careerism and cowardice.

    Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He is the host of show “The Chris Hedges Report”. This article is republished from his X account.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The Betrayal Of Palestinian Journalists

    There are two types of war correspondents. The first type does not attend press conferences. They do not beg generals and politicians for interviews. They take risks to report from combat zones. They send back to their viewers or readers what they see, which is almost always diametrically opposed to official narratives. This first type, in every war, is a tiny minority.

    Then there is the second type, the inchoate blob of self-identified war correspondents who play at war. Despite what they tell editors and the public, they have no intention of putting themselves in danger. They are pleased with the Israeli ban on foreign reporters into Gaza. They plead with officials for background briefings and press conferences.

    The post The Betrayal Of Palestinian Journalists appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Walden Bello on Gaza and the media silence: ‘It isn’t fear of the Zionists. It is far worse’

    Israel is boosting its Zionist influence in the Pacific. Australia has exposed such media influence. The media in the Philippines is now under scrutiny. And Aotearoa New Zealand?

    COMMENTARY: By Walden Bello

    When the Flores and Velasco articles and posts whitewashing Israel’s genocidal policies in Gaza first came out a few days ago, I was waiting for people in the Philippine media to criticise and denounce them since they were so obviously hack pieces that did not meet the minimal standards of decent journalism.

    I waited and waited, until I realised that there were no media people or organisations that were going to speak up.

    Where were the progressive and liberal voices, apart from those of Richard Heydarian and Inday Espina Varona?

    Walden Bello's earlier article in Asia Pacific Report on August 31
    Walden Bello’s earlier article in Asia Pacific Report on August 31 exposing “hack propaganda”. Image: APR screenshot

    This was the reason I felt compelled to issue the statement condemning the sordid reporting of Flores and Velasco.

    I was not out to do an expose, but that’s what it effectively became. In my subsequent posts, I raised the question of what was the reason just two journalists were willing to challenge the stories.

    Was it a case of circling the wagons to protect errant colleagues? Was it fear of ties with the Israeli state being exposed by the Israelis in retaliation? Was it fear of physical or political reprisals by the Israelis?

    These may have played a part, but the deafening silence meant there was something bigger at work.

    This morning I received a long text from a prominent media practitioner that provided the answer. It’s not fear. It’s actually worse: agreement with Zionist ideology and policies, including genocide.

    That the person asked me not to divulge his name for fear of suffering retribution from his colleagues stunned me. OMG, is this how deep the rot is with our media? ? Here is his disconcerting revelation to me:

    ‘Most are prejudiced’
    “Yes some are scared, but honestly most of them actually are prejudiced against Muslims and side with the Zionists anytime.

    “Most believe in the US religious fascist Zionist narrative, and also cannot accept that the world has changed — that the US is no longer the unipower it was decades ago, and that Russia, China, India and BRICS are on the rise.

    “And also, you should hear them talk about how Filipino Muslims should be wiped off the face of the earth.

    “These are college graduates from UP [University of the Philippines], UST [University of Santo Tomas], Ateneo who studied media.

    “Whenever I would voice empathy for the Muslim minority here, or Palestinians, I’d be called stupid. Same also because I refused to join in the corruption.

    “Oh, and also they have the same prejudice against China and the Chinese and mistake the Japanese imperial army atrocities as something China did to us!

    “Also this is not limited to media. I have batchmates from UP Diliman, medical doctors, lawyers, engineers who also have the same prejudices.”

    He added: “Some of these journalists have won awards abroad.”

    Walden Bello is a Filipino academic and analyst of Global South issues who was awarded Amnesty International Philippines’ Most Distinguished Defender of Human Rights Award in 2023. He has also served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • AI ‘Slop’ Websites Are Publishing Climate Science Denial

    At the start of June, MSN, the world’s fourth-largest news aggregator, posted an article from a new climate-focused publication, Climate Cosmos, entitled: “Why Top Experts Are Rethinking Climate Alarmism”.

    The article – by “Kathleen Westbrook M.Sc Climate Science” – cited a finding from the “Global Climate Research Institute” that “65 percent of surveyed climate professionals advocate for pragmatic, solution-focused messaging over fear-driven warnings.”

    But there were a couple of major problems: the Global Climate Research Institute doesn’t exist, and nor does Kathleen Westbrook, whose profile on Climate Cosmos has now been renamed to ‘Henrieke Otte’.

    The article accused those who advocate for climate action of overstating the harms caused by burning fossil fuels.

    The post AI ‘Slop’ Websites Are Publishing Climate Science Denial appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Massacre of Gaza journalists triggers RSF’s Black Monday protest today

    Pacific Media Watch

    Today, 1 September 2025, is being marked as a Black Monday following the latest deadly strikes by the Israeli army against journalists in the Gaza Strip as part of a worldwide action by the Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders and the community politics organisation Avaaz.

    On August 25, one of these strikes targeted a building in the al-Nasser medical complex in central Gaza, a known workplace for reporters, killing five journalists and staff members of local and international media outlets such as Reuters and the Associated Press.

    Two weeks earlier, on the night of August 10, an Israeli strike killed six reporters, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who was the intended target.

    According to RSF data, more than 210 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip in nearly 23 months of Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory.

    At least 56 of them were intentionally targeted by the Israeli army or killed while doing their job. This ongoing massacre of Palestinian journalists requires a large-scale operation highly visible to the general public.

    With this unprecedented mobilisation planned for today, RSF renews its call for urgent protection for Palestinian media professionals in the Gaza Strip, a demand endorsed by over 200 media outlets and organisations in June.

    Independent access
    The NGO also calls for foreign press to be granted independent access to the Strip, which Israeli authorities have so far denied.

    “The Israeli army killed five journalists in two strikes on Monday, August 25. Just two weeks earlier, it similarly killed six journalists in a single strike,” said Thibaut Bruttin, executive director of RSF.

    “Since 7 October 2023, more than 210 Palestinian journalists have been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

    “We reject this deadly new norm, which week after week brings new crimes against Palestinian journalists that go unpunished. We say it loud and clear: at the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed.

    “More than 150 media outlets worldwide have joined together for a major operation on Monday, 1 September, at the call of RSF and Avaaz.

    “This campaign calls on world leaders to do their duty: stop the Israeli army from committing these crimes against journalists, resume the evacuation of the journalists who wish to leave Gaza, and ensure the foreign press has independent access to the Palestinian territory.

    More than 150 media outlets in over 50 countries aretaking part in the operation on Monday, 1 September.

    They include numerous daily newspapers and news websites: Mediapart (France), Al Jazeera (Qatar), The Independent (United Kingdom), +972 Magazine (Israel/Palestine), Local Call (Israel/Palestine), InfoLibre (Spain), Forbidden Stories (France), Frankfurter Rundschau (Germany), Der Freitag (Germany), RTVE (Spain), L’Humanité (France), The New Arab (United Kingdom), Daraj (Lebanon), New Bloom (Taiwan), Photon Media (Hong Kong), La Voix du Centre (Cameroon), Guinée Matin (Guinea), The Point (Gambia), L’Orient Le Jour (Lebanon), Media Today (South Korea), N1 (Serbia), KOHA (Kosovo), Public Interest Journalism Lab (Ukraine), Il Dubbio (Italy), Intercept Brasil (Brazil), Agência Pública (Brazil), Le Soir (Belgium), La Libre (Belgium), Le Desk (Morocco), Semanario Brecha (Uruguay), Asia Pacific Report (New Zealand) and many others.

    Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The Guardian view on the killing of Gaza’s journalists: Israel wants to stop the world from seeing what it’s doing | Editorial

    This is the most lethal war for the media in recent times. A generation of journalists is being wiped out

    Day by day, the death toll rises, the war crimes mount, and the outrage grows. Last Wednesday, the pope demanded that Israel stop its “collective punishment” of Gaza’s population. A day later, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, warned that “the levels of death and destruction … are without parallel in recent times”. More than 500 UN staff have pressed the human rights chief, Volker Türk, to call it genocide. Half of registered voters in the US have already concluded that that is what Israel is doing in Gaza.

    The agony is deepening. On Friday, the Israeli military declared famine-hit Gaza City to be a combat zone, intensifying its assault and ending “tactical pauses” that allowed limited – if utterly inadequate – food delivery. Many inhabitants are physically incapable of fleeing again, and fear that they would be no safer elsewhere. Israel has attacked parts of areas that it has labelled as “humanitarian zones”.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Opening Gaza to the Foreign Press Corps

    The Fourth Estate may not be in a good way, corrupted and compromised as it is, but in some instances, it remains the only light cast over the predations and ghastliness of power. For that precise reason, the state of Israel has been most cautious, to the point of folly, of shutting out foreign journalists from covering the Gaza conflict. A job most dirty needs to be done – levelling, disabling, dispossessing and crushing of a strip with over 2 million Palestinians – and it shall only be witnessed, controlled and invigilated with utmost care.

    Only the friendliest of the friendly need apply for access to Gaza, and the call by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in August that the military bring in more foreign journalists is heavily contingent on control.

    The Gaza campaign is proving frustratingly long for the Netanyahu government. During this time the Israeli Defense Forces have become routine killers of journalists. Given the international press ban, the number of those slain by the IDF are overwhelmingly Palestinian. Since the start of the Gaza War, 189 have been killed. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) puts the death toll for all journalists and media workers between October 2023 and August 2025 at 197. Data from Reporters Without Borders puts the figure of journalists killed in Gaza at over 210, claiming that 56 of them were intentionally targeted by the IDF, while the UN Secretary General António Guterres offers 242 as the more accurate figure. Between 2020-22, 165 journalists were killed across the globe, a statistic bound to move even the coldest of analysts.

    Add aid workers and medical staff, and you have such cases as the attack on Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital during the morning of August 25. Initially, it was assumed that two strikes hit southern Gaza’s sole functioning major hospital. At least 20 people died, including five journalists. A closer examination of footage of the strikes by BBC Verify shows the initial assessment to have been conservative. At least four strikes took place. Two staircases were hit in the first wave, and what was initially thought to be a single attack turns out to have been two separate strikes hitting the same location within a fraction of a second. The first, registered at 10:08 local time, killed journalist Hussam Al-Mastri, who was in the process of running a live TV feed for Reuters. First responders and journalists ran to aid the wounded and were subsequently butchered.

    The list of the dead also includes Associated Press freelance photographer Mariam Abu Dagga; Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammed Salama; freelance photographer Moaz Abu Taha; and Middle East Eye and Quds News Network correspondent, Abu Aziz.

    The justifications for such slaughter by the IDF have become something to behold. A weary formula is at work: first, assume the strike was on a Hamas or militant site, leaving those in the vicinity silly for being there. The official line: the IDF does not target civilians, despite killing a vast number in such strikes. Secondly, belittle those who died in exhaustive fashion, accusing them of being militants, militant sympathisers or “combat propagandists”. It follows on from the first point: if they were there, they were obviously tarnished one way or the other.

    Jodie Ginsburg, the CEO of CPJ, provides a terse, accurate summary on what international humanitarian law says on this subject: “The only individuals who can be considered legitimate targets in war are those directly involved in active combat. Expressing sympathy for proscribed organisations, or even engaging in propaganda, does not make someone a legitimate target.”

    One’s political inclination – in so far as protection from military targeting is concerned – is irrelevant to the role of gathering and disseminating news. As Ginsburg goes on to observe, journalists have had leanings and sympathies for such previously proscribed organisations as the Irish Republican Army or the African National Congress. “That didn’t make them terrorists, nor legitimate targets.”

    With these killings and the continuing starvation and deprivation taking place in the Strip, many of Israel’s allies are now giving some unwanted advice. On August 21, member states of the Media Freedom Coalition released a statement declaring that, “In light of the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the undersigned members of the Media Freedom Coalition, urge Israel to allow immediate independent foreign media access and afford protection for journalists operating in Gaza.” Of the 28 signatories, the bulk are European, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom. With usual conspicuousness, the United States remains absent.

    The signatories went on to “condemn all violence directed against journalists and media workers, especially the extremely high number of fatalities, arrests and detentions.” International humanitarian made it clear that civilian journalists were protected in times of armed conflict. “We call for all attacks against media workers to be investigated and for those responsible to be prosecuted in compliance with national and international law.”

    While the protection of journalists in such situations could hardly be fully sealed and assured, Israel will find killing members of the foreign press corps in numbers a more trying prospect. Should they be allowed to scribble and record the vast, engineered crime taking place in Gaza and in real time, silencing them will become a most formidable, exacting task. Certainly, casual accusations of Hamas membership or sympathy will be harder, more absurd, to make.

    The post Opening Gaza to the Foreign Press Corps first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • How two Filipino ‘journalists’ took part in Israeli whitewashing of genocide

    COMMENTARY: By Walden Bello

    I am alarmed by reports that Filipino journalists were flown in by the Israeli government to participate in what is essentially a whitewashing campaign for the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

    At least two articles, atrocious excuses for journalism, have come out of this trip.One is a piece by Wilson Lee Flores for The Philippine Star, entitled “Israel beyond the headlines: Where ancient stones speak.”

    By attempting to divert attention from the massacre of Palestinian civilians to “the Old City’s labyrinthine alleys,” Flores acts as an apologist for war crimes, akin to writing a travel blog about Nazi Germany.

    In a Facebook post, Flores further parrots Israel’s propaganda by highlighting how the brutal IDF employs both men and women to carry out atrocities, a cynical weaponisation of “feminism.”

    Even more repulsive is the piece from the Daily Tribune about “Gaza’s Fake Famine” from Vernon Velasco. It is a parody of a story, overly simplifying the famine of Gaza to a matter of food truck logistics, and uncritically quoting an IDF Officer.

    Fittingly, the article contains three photos of shipping containers but not a single photo of a human being.

    This runs counter to facts laid out by UN officials, including Joyce Msuya, the UN’s Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who points out how half a million people face “starvation, destitution, and death”.

    ‘Moral failure’ over Gaza
    A study published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet points to the “moral failure” as 1-2 million people live in the most extreme food insecurity level (phase 5 or catastrophe famine) according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

    "By attempting to divert attention from the massacre of Palestinian civilians to 'the Old City’s labyrinthine alleys,' Flores acts as an apologist for war crimes"
    “By attempting to divert attention from the massacre of Palestinian civilians to ‘the Old City’s labyrinthine alleys,’ Flores acts as an apologist for war crimes, akin to writing a travel blog about Nazi Germany.” Image: TPS “Life” screenshot APR

    This famine unfolds as shameless journalists make food vlogs kilometres away.

    The facts are clear. At least 63,000 people have been killed and 150,000 injured, with women and children making up a significant portion of the casualties. The UN has also reported that nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s population (around 1.9 million people) has been displaced.

    Widespread destruction has left over 70 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure destroyed, including more than 94 percent of hospitals either damaged or destroyed. No amount of narrative spin or “complexity” can sanitise this genocide.

    As we celebrate National Press Freedom Day, I implore friends in the press to not fall for the lies of the murderous Zionist regime.

    It would be tragic for journalists to provide cover for a regime that has murdered at least 240 of their peers.

    Filipino journalists must shed the unhealthy culture of silence and non-intervention, and not hesitate to criticise errant colleagues.

    They must make it clear that these recipients of Zionist gold are a disgrace to Philippine journalism. The Philippine government must look into the activities of the Israeli Embassy and their manipulation of local media narratives to sanitise their genocide.

    Filipino journalists must stand in solidarity with their slain colleagues abroad, not with their killers.

    Walden Bello is a Filipino academic and analyst of Global South issues who was awarded Amnesty International Philippines’ Most Distinguished Defender of Human Rights Award in 2023. He has also served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • House Republicans Investigate Wikipedia for Alleged “Anti-Israel” Bias

    A pair of House Republicans is moving forward with an investigation that will seek to reveal the identities of Wikipedia editors who have edited articles to include information that portrays Israel negatively. On Wednesday, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Govt engaged social media influencers to promote Ethanol-blended petrol (E20): What’s at play?

    With the nationwide rollout of 20% ethanol-blended petrol (E20) becoming a matter debate in various circles, a new trend was seen on social media, in which influencers with millions of followers were making and posting videos enumerating the benefits of ethanol-blended petrol.

    The points made in these videos are similar — such as the environmental benefits of ethanol-blended petrol and how farmers can profit from it. This indicates a coordinated effort to amplify the government’s message. Several prominent influencers, such as Abhishek Malhan alias Fukra Insaan, Mahesh Keshwala alias Thagesh, Indrani Vishwas, Tayyab Alam, Geetanjali Chauhan, Neha Nagar, Akanksha Ahuja, Varsha Dahiya, Ankur Agarwal, Rajan Arora, Arun Kushwah alias Chhote Mian, RJ Naveed, RJ Praveen, RJ Karishma, RJ Shonali, have been a part of this campaign.

    Some of these videos can be watched here:

    Alt News noticed that many of these videos had views in lakhs and crores. For example, Abhishek Malhan’s video has been viewed more than 1.15 crore times, while Ankur Agarwal’s video had 40 lakh views. Similarly, Rajan Arora’s video has 31 lakh and RJ Karishma’s video more than 19 lakh views. Below we have presented the data of 30 influencers who have participated in the publicity to give the readers a sense of the reach of this campaign.

    Name Username Followers Count Campaign content Views
    Abhishek Malhan fukra_insaan 11.1M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLmw3NsyEWU/ 11.5M
    Naved Khan rjnaved 9.2M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKcCpi-T6hi/ 1.1M
    Karishma rjkarishma 7M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM72-7oTDp4/ 1.9M
    RJ Praveen rjpraveen 2.5M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DL6wD95xyo_/ 859k
    Ankur Agarwal ankur_agarwal_vines 2.2M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNKxCSozAkw/ 4M
    Neha Nagar iamnehanagar 2M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLASghsTObM/ 727k
    Thugesh maheshkeshwala 1.9M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK9jLiGsjHg/ 788k
    Santosh Jadhav indianfarmer 1.9M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMNkkJ7P8om/ 376k
    CA Rahul Malodia rahulmalodiaofficial 1.7M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNTATBwh5zK/ 369k
    Deepak Bajaj coachdeepak 1.5M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLurW2OPpFg/ 70k
    Sanjay Kathuria financebysanjay 1.4M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLfN23vSIc9/ 219k
    Shivanshu Agrawal shivanshu.agrawal_ 1.4M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMIiiLEJKqA/ 699k
    Motor Octane motoroctane 1.3M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLPdAetToMQ/ 309k
    Rajan Arora hustlingrajan 1.3M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DL-Jn3CvpCo/ 3.1M
    Vishal Rattewal vishal.rattewal 1.1M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLpZQHvyDsb/ 556k
    Indrani Biswas wondermunna 1M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLKbYr3MUqk/ 970k
    Chandralekha Mittemari Ravikumar financewuzardcl 1M https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKo5lG1TBQh/ 90k
    Arun Kushwah iamarunkushwah 847k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNGP_PUsKF1/ 1.6M
    Manu Bajaj iammanubajaj 716k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DL2QW1AhP5I/ 210k
    Akash Chowdhary iakashchowdhary 647k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMxZzsvvIRi/ 92k
    Tarun Kumar Kedia tarunkediaa 625k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMAysRIhbMB/ 170k
    Varsha Dahiya i.vasuu 570k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLhppYyhVvu/ 1.2M
    Niranjan Nigadikar ekachchhava 430k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLXTTQTInDF/ 276k
    Devendra Patel agrilcareee 423k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKe1PwKyO5O/ 169k
    Vadiraj Babaladi vadirajbabaladi 362k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMiGkR1yvcn/ 497k
    Saloni Khanna thesalonikhanna 296k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMX0tbjv9Eg/ 54k
    Dr. Aakanksha Ahuja aakankshaviplove 268k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLr9XvfhwOJ/ 1.2M
    RJ Shonali shonalii11 251k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMsnqB8ynQ0/ 79k
    Manav Narang learnwithcamanav 247k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK1vozuBkJl/ 55k
    Taiyab Alam taiyabalam0 238k https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLZ_HQ3vpVj/ 192k

    As mentioned earlier, in our analysis of videos posted on the same topic by influencers with millions of followers, we found several common points being made, such as how it can reduce pollution and benefit farmers. And all the influencers used the same hashtags. Apart from this, all these videos were posted using Instagram’s collab feature. The collaborators included official accounts of Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union petroleum and natural gas ministry, BPCL, HPCL and IOCL.

    Readers should note that for the collab feature to work, the post has to be approved by the respective user. In this case, all these reels were approved for collab by the official accounts of the aforementioned minister, Union ministry and the oil companies.

    While influencers like Arun Kushwah and RJ Karishma used hashtags to indicate that their posts were advertorial, and Neha Nagar used Instagram’s ‘Paid Partnership’ label, most influencers did not disclose in their captions or videos that their video was part of an advertisement campaign.

    The Race Monkey: Influencer who Said No to Being a Part of the Campaign

    Something noteworthy came to light when we closely looked at the influencer page, The Race Monkey. This Instagram account that shares content related to car, bike, automotive reviews, etc., posted a screenshot of a WhatsApp message from a social media influencer agency. In the message, the agency inquires about a possible brand collaboration with them regarding 20% ethanol-blended petrol. The sender of the message asks for @theracemonkey’s professional charges for posting content based on the subject. According to The Race Monkey’s Instagram post, they declined the offer.

    In an Instagram story, the user also questioned the notion that the use of ethanol was beneficial. “The common man is bearing the cost of damage to the vehicle and the pocket. As a consumer driven automobile portal, we said a big No to spreading misinformation”, they said.

    Speaking to Alt News, Ishaan Bhardwaj, who is also the editor of the portal, TheRaceMonkey.com, said, “On the 14th of August, I received a phone call from a woman named Simran who said she worked with an agency called Hextech Media, which was a social media influencer agency doing paid campaigns for various brands. She told me about this campaign on E20 Fuel and how it benefitted the farmers and the environment. I asked her to share the details on message to which she was a little hesitant but later on she did. After reading through the campaign, I was clear that this was to mislead people into believing that E20 was good for the vehicles sold in India by giving references of farmer welfare and environmental protection… Further, I called them to check on their budget on the campaign to understand how big the numbers were. They asked me to give me a number and I said Rs.20 lakh, to which they said they won’t be able to give more than 15 lakh…”

    Bhardwaj, who is considered an expert in matters related to the automobile industry, said, “There have been internal communications among the Automotive Components Manufacturers Association (ACMA), the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas and the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) to make E20 fuel mandatory across the country.”

    Explaining the entire scheme of things further, he stated, “In 2020, manufacturers globally had announced that they would switch to fully electric mobility by 2030. But then the pandemic happened. Because of the world-wide economic decline, electric car sales slumped and lately has reduced to a few thousands a year, model on model. Electric cars depreciate to half their value in 2-3 years too so it becomes a less economically viable purchase for anyone. And majority of the consumers for EVs is the middle class. Tis also contributed to sales going down considerably. ”

    This, Bhardwaj explained, led to auto manufacturers re-think their strategy and go back to largely manufacturing petrol and diesel cars. “In India however, there was a major challenge. With no subsidies and high investments made by car and component manufacturers to setup their EV ecosystem, it became challenging for them to keep up with low sales month-on-month. Hence, earlier this month, the push for making E20 fuel compulsory across the country. Not as an option, but as a mandate for all fuel pump owners to follow.”

    Elaborating on who benefits from this, Bhardwaj further said, “This push or an unnecessary compulsion has been done for the boost that component manufacturers will get, since original equipment manufacturers will now launch kits that will cost a bomb to convert old cars to E20 compliant ones. Union MoRTH minister Nitin Gadkari gets a huge chunk of margins since most of the refineries and corn farming is done under his family’s name. So, it’s a win-win situation of the government and ACMA which will be squeezing a huge chunk of money out of people’s pockets.”

    Alt News reached out to Hextech Media regarding this matter. This article will be updated once we get a response.

    Motorcycle Trails

    Another influencer named Motorcycle Trails also shared a similar experience on Instagram. He was also approached by a social media influencer agency to create content on E20 ethanol-blended petrol and was asked about his professional charge for creating content related to that campaign.

    In an Instagram post, Motorcycle Trails says that he has explained in a video on YouTube why ethanol blended petrol is harmful for old vehicles. He refused the offer saying that he would not be a part of any such collaboration with any agency that would try to change or influence his views on this issue.

    We have reached out to Motorcycle Trails for more information. This article will be updated if we get a response from him.

    Content Matches Govt Press Release Language

    It is interesting to note that there is a lot of similarity between the official government communication on ethanol-blended petrol and the brand collab messages received from influencer agencies.

    For instance, a message sent to The Race Monkey via WhatsApp from the agency briefly shared the idea of ​​the brand collab. The message uses the phrase “RESPONSE TO CONCERNS ON 20% BLENDING OF ETHANOL IN PETROL AND BEYOND” . This phrase was also the title of the press release issued by the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas on August 12 in which they responded to the concerns of the people on blending 20 percent ethanol in petrol. The same phrase was present with minor changes in the message received by Motorcycle Trails from the agency. This indicates that the government is systematically using influencer marketing to communicate its agenda to the public and set the desired narrative.

    Questions Remain

    The use of influencers to communicate messages to the public and effectively set a narrative also marks a shift from traditional advertising and public relations strategies. Some key questions that remain to be answered are as follows:  

    What is the likely budget of the campaign?

    Although the total budget of this entire campaign has not been made public yet, The Race Monkey, which has has 1.5 lakh followers, was offered Rs 15 lakh for a post by the social media influencer agency. From this, one can have an idea on the total budget for the campaign, given many influencers with crores of followers have made videos on this. 

    Is ethanol-blended petrol a new development?

    In 2014, only 1.5% ethanol was added to petrol but it reached 20% by 2025. On 24 July 2025, Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri claimed that ethanol production had increased from 38 crore liters in 2014 to 661.1 crore liters by June 2025. This has helped India save about Rs 1.36 lakh crore in foreign currency by reducing its dependence on imported crude oil.

    In 2018, Nitin Gadkari had claimed that ethanol blending could reduce the price of petrol to Rs 55 per liter and diesel to Rs 50 per liter. He argued that ethanol made from sugarcane and corn was cheaper than petrol and this would benefit consumers. As on the date of this article being published, a retail consumer in Kolkata has to shell out Rs 105.41 per litre for petrol, Rs 92.02 for diesel. 

    The post Govt engaged social media influencers to promote Ethanol-blended petrol (E20): What’s at play? appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Attack On Palestine Chronicle

    The Palestine Chronicle is not a militant organization. It is a modest, independent publication, sustained by small donations and animated by a singular mission: to bear witness. It tells the untold stories of Palestine, documenting dispossession, resistance and the endurance of a people condemned to silence.

    In a media landscape dominated by powerful conglomerates repeating the language of governments, the Chronicle insists on a journalism of proximity — grounded in daily lives, in the rubble of Gaza, in voices otherwise erased. Its true offense, in the eyes of its detractors, is not invention but truth.

    At the heart of this endeavor stands Ramzy Baroud. His career is the antithesis of clandestine.

    The post The Attack On Palestine Chronicle appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • CPJ, partners urge Maldives president to drop restrictive media bill

    The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 20 other civil society groups calling on Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu to withdraw the proposed Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulation Bill, warning it poses a grave threat to press freedom and media independence.

    If passed, the bill would empower a new state-controlled regulator with sweeping powers to suspend media outlets, block websites, and impose heavy fines on journalists, in violation of the Maldives’ constitutional and international commitments to free expression. The bill was accepted by parliament without meaningful consultation, despite protests by local journalists.

    Read the full statement here.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Magazine Rack

    The post Magazine Rack first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Russian strikes on Ukraine damage 3 media outlets 

    New York, August 28, 2025—A massive, early morning Russian attack on Ukraine damaged the offices of at least three news outlets on August 28, 2025.

    In Kyiv, the offices of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and independent news outlet Ukrainska Pravda were damaged in a drone and missile attack. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, in eastern Ukraine, a drone strike damaged the office of local newspaper Mezhivsky Merydian.

    No media workers or journalists were injured in the attacks. The shelling on Kyiv killed at least 18 people and marked one of the rare instances in which Russian strikes have penetrated deep into the heart of the capital since the start of the full-scale invasion. Authorities reported no casualties in the Dnipropetrovsk region. 

    “Today’s devastating Russian attack on Ukraine, which damaged at least three media offices, is a stark reminder of the risks journalists face working and living in the country,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “The strikes show that journalists’ safety remains a major concern, regardless of how far they are from the front lines. We strongly condemn these attacks and call on Russia to immediately stop attacking civilian infrastructure.” 

    Russia has often hit the offices of media outlets across the country in the more than three-and-a-half-year war. Journalists have been injured while working and their homes have been shelled. At least 18 journalists and media workers have been killed while reporting in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

    The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Lauren Wolfe.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • NZ media workers call for ‘decisive action’ by Luxon over Gaza journalists

    Asia Pacific Report

    About 120 journalists, film makers, actors, media workers and academics have today called on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and two senior cabinet ministers in an open letter to “act decisively” to protect Gaza journalists and a free press.

    “These are principles to which New Zealand has always laid claim and which are now under grave threat in Gaza and the West Bank,” the signatories said in the letter about Israel’s war on Gaza.

    The plea was addressed to Luxon, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith.

    Among the signatories are many well known media personalities such as filmmaker Gemma Gracewood, actor Lucy Lawless, film director Kim Webby, broadcaster Alison Mau, and comedian and documentarian Te Radar, and journalist Mereana Hond.

    The letter also calls on the government to urgently condemn the killing of 13 Palestinian journalists and media workers this month as the death toll in the 22-month war has reached almost 63,000 — more than 18,000 of them children.

    Global protests against the war and the forced starvation in the besieged enclave have been growing steadily over the past few weeks with more than 500,000 people taking part in Israel last week.

    Commitment to safety
    The letter urged Luxon and the government to:

    1. Publicly reaffirm New Zealand’s commitment to the safety of journalists worldwide and make clear this protection applies in every conflict zone, including Gaza.

    2. Reiterate the Media Freedom Coalition call for access for international press, ensuring safety, aid and crucial reporting are guaranteed; paired with New Zealand’s existing call for a ceasefire and safe humanitarian access corridors.

    3. Back international action already underway, by publicly affirming support for ICC investigations into attacks on journalists anywhere in the world, and by advocating that the United Nations adopt an international convention for the safety of journalists and media workers so that states parties meet their obligations under international law.

    4. Formally confirm that New Zealand’s free press and human rights principles apply to Palestinian journalists and media workers, as they do to all others.

    The letter said these measures were “consistent with New Zealand’s values, our history of independent foreign policy, and the rules-based international order we have always claimed to champion, and for which our very future as a country is reliant upon”.

    It added: “They do not require us to choose sides and they uphold the principle that a free press and those who embody it must never be targeted for doing their jobs.”

    Condemn the killings
    The recent deaths brought the number of Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, to at least 219 at the time of writing, said the letter.

    “Many more are injured and missing. Many of those killed were clearly identified as members of the press. Some were killed alongside their families,” it said.

    The letter called on the government to urgently condemn the killings of:

    ● Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, along with freelance journalist Mohammad Al-Khalidi and freelance cameraman Momen Aliwa, who were targeted and killed in, or as a result of, an August 10 airstrike on their tent in Gaza City.

    ● Correspondents Hussam al-Masri, Hatem Khaled, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Mohammad Salama, Ahmed Abu Azi and Moaz Abu Taha, all killed in a strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on August 25.

    ● Journalist and academic Hassan Douhan, killed in Khan Younis on August 25.

    “From Malcolm Ross to Margaret Moth, Peter Arnett to Mike McRoberts, New Zealand has a proud history of war correspondents. The same international laws that have protected them are meant to protect all journalists, wherever they work,” said the letter.

    “Today, those protections are being violated with impunity.

    “Our media colleagues are being murdered, and we have a duty to speak up.”

    As journalists, editors, producers, writers, documentary-makers, media workers and storytellers, said the letter, “we believe in the essential role of a free press.

    “These killings are in violation of international rules-based order, including humanitarian law, and are intended to erase witnesses to the truth itself. These media professionals are doing their jobs under extremely challenging conditions, and are civilians worthy of protection under human rights laws.

    “This is not only a matter of professional solidarity, this is a matter of principle. Journalists are civilians. They are witnesses to history. They deserve the same protection anywhere in the world.”

    “We urge you to lead, knowing you have the voices of Aotearoa’s storytellers and history-keepers standing with you.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Anti-Palestinian Racism

    The post Anti-Palestinian Racism first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.