Why reporters’ lives matter

In the nearly 23 months of Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory, journalists have emerged as among the most targeted professionals. According to Reporters Sans Frontiers data, more than 210 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, during this conflict. At least 56 of them were intentionally targeted by the Israeli army or killed while doing their job.

This is a dangerous trend. Over the years of modern warfare, it has always been a recognized practice that some professionals, whose work puts them in the line of fire, should be given every opportunity to do their work and be protected from bullets and death. Doctors, nurses, reporters were on top of this list.

Alas, this rule seems to have been missed in the Israel attack and there is, instead an active picking out of journalists and silencing them with bullets.

Why is this symptomatic of a deeper and more troubling problem? Even in this social media-driven times when even youth record war crimes casually on their phones and post it online, the work of reporters trained to sift fact from lies and place them before the world is of paramount importance. It frames the conflict in clearer terms and long after the war has finished, these accounts of reality will be our terms of reference in moving forward.

The world must protest against the brutal killing of journalists – of course, one may argue that their lives are not more valuable than those of the innocent civilians and children dying every day. But by silencing their voices, Israel is setting the stage for a ‘no questions asked’ regime where authoritarianism will erase dangerous human rights and democracy violations simply by eliminating those with access to the reality and who can take that message to the masses.

Every nation needs to raise its voice against this targeting of reporters – it does not mean we care any less for the other atrocities but we need to record our protest so that future generations searching for the truth of Israeli erasure of its genocide and barbarity, will know that we did our best to protect those who laid down their lives to bring the truth to the world.

(Captain Mahmood Al Mahmood is the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Tribune and the President of the Arab-African Unity Organisation for Relief, Human Rights and Counterterrorism)