My Take | As journalists die in Gaza, West worries about our press freedom
- Israel is only told to be more careful in its attacks as media toll grows while Khashoggi killing is forgotten and ordeal for Assange goes on
The West’s recent record on press freedom has been atrocious, but it frets about ours in Hong Kong.
The Joe Biden administration seems to think the world has forgotten about Jamal Khashoggi but we remember. The killing and dismemberment of the Saudi dissident journalist and Washington Post columnist by Saudi agents inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018 has shocked the entire world. But never mind, according to the White House, Biden and his teams effectively said they needed Saudi oil after all, having cut off Russian supplies.
And what about the Israeli military’s assassination of revered Al Jazeera journalist and American citizen Shireen Abu Akleh last year in the West Bank? US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was no evidence that her killing was intentional. Really? Her killing wasn’t isolated.
At least 45 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces since 2000, but before the current assault on Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Union puts the toll higher at 55. Since October 7, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 68 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces, an unprecedented number for such a short period in any recent conflict.
What is particularly gruesome is that the Israeli military is targeting not just journalists but their families.
In October, Al Jazeera reporter and Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh found out while on air that his wife, son, daughter and grandson had been killed in an Israeli air strike.
Another Israeli strike killed eight members of photojournalist Yasser Qudih’s family.