RSF assails Israel on intimidation of country’s journalists

In October 2023 alone, at least 15 journalists were attacked or threatened by the Israeli security forces or individual citizens

An Israeli soldier pictured in Al Jazeera's Ramallah bureau after a raid which  forcibly closed the office | Photo: Al Jazeera

FOR a credible NGO striving to help enhance transparency in journalism across the globe, it’s official. The first casualty of war is truth, particularly if one of the warring sides is Israel. The watchdog of journalists that raised the vital issue through a new report was the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and its message effectively was: Truth is the first casualty of conflict, and so it is with the Gaza war.

The latest RSF report clearly stated that since the Oct 7 attack on Israel and the start of war in Gaza, pressure on Israeli journalists and media outlets has increased. The government’s move is obviously aimed at ensuring a sanitised narrative throughout the Jewish state’s conflict. There’s no room, therefore, for criticism of the Israeli regime or its handling of the war.  

In its report titled “Pressure, intimidation, and censorship: Israeli journalists have faced growing repression in the past year”, the RSF condemned this climate of intimidation and called on the Israeli authorities to stop obstructing the work of journalists covering the war.

“…Since that day nearly a year ago, the Israeli government has been waging a devastating war in Gaza and the intimidation and censorship of Israeli media outlets has increased,” said the report. “Israeli journalists striving to cover the conflict now work under heavy pressure. Like all journalists outside Gaza, they cannot enter the blockaded Palestinian enclave unless they accompany the Israeli army and remain under strict surveillance.”

A screengrab of the aforementioned report from the RSF website

The report pointed out that any coverage deemed critical of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, or even sympathetic to the Palestinian victims, has become risky territory. “In October 2023 alone, at least 15 journalists were attacked or threatened by the Israeli security forces or individual citizens.

“These repressive acts, fuelled by nationwide anger after the assault on 7 October, have reinforced the climate of self-censorship among media professionals in Israel, which was further exacerbated by a draconian regulation dating to November 2023 that bans international media outlets considered a threat to national security.”

About the situation obtaining in Israel, RSF’s Director for Campaigns Rebecca Vincent said: “During this year of unprecedented violence against the media in Gaza, journalism has also taken a hit in Israel itself. Israeli journalists attempting to report on the war have faced increasing pressure and intimidation, and the Netanyahu government has overseen policies and practices that amount to outright censorship. This alarming trend is severely restricting the right of Israelis to access full information on the war, and will result in long-term damage to press freedom in Israel if not immediately reversed.  

“Combined with the decimation of journalism in Gaza through the killing of more than 130 journalists, as well as the continued blockade on foreign media from entering Gaza, Israeli authorities are also in turn obstructing the global public’s right to information on the war.”
The RSF report revealed that Journalist Israel Frey was forced to evacuate his home in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, on Oct 14 after a mob from Israel’s far-right threatened him outside his house, accusing him of showing sympathy for the victims of Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip in a video he had appeared in.

Israeli Journalist Israel Frey who was targeted for showing solidarity with Gazans | Photo: X/File

A few days earlier, on Oct 13, journalists from the BBC Arabic — Muhannad Tutunji, Haitham Abudiab, and their team — were arrested, assaulted, and held at gunpoint by Israeli police in Tel Aviv. On June 5, an unidentified assailant destroyed the glass entrance to the editorial office of daily Haaretz, which is among the few media outlets covering the impact of the war on Gazans.

Similarly, two Haaretz journalists were assaulted by police officers on Sept 2 while covering demonstrations demanding an agreement for the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas.

The body of a journalist who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza | Photo: Getty

Policies of censorship

The RSF report said the government’s draconian regulation passed in November of 2023 — which became a new law in April 2024 — was used to ban Al-Jazeera’s channel in Israel, following defamatory accusations of “propaganda” and “terrorism” by Israeli politicians and members of its judiciary. The media outlet’s office in Ramallah, in the occupied territories, was also stormed in September 2024 by Israeli forces and forced to close for a renewable period of 45 days.

According to the journalists who contacted RSF, the ban on the Qatari channel was seen as a wider threat to media outlets accused of pro-Palestinian coverage. At the same time, the Israeli blockade on Gaza continues to keep international journalists from reporting the facts on this war-torn territory.