World Press Freedom Day used to remember journalists killed in Gaza conflict

This past week on the 3rd of May, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) commemorated World Press Freedom Day.

It is being marked at a particularly perilous time for journalists globally, with Israel’s war on Gaza becoming the deadliest conflict for journalists and media workers.

In a statement Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “When we lose a journalist, we lose our eyes and ears to the outside world. We lose a voice for the voiceless.

World Press Freedom Day was established to celebrate the value of truth and to protect the people who work courageously to uncover it.”

More than 100 journalists and media workers, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed in the first seven months of war in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Gaza’s media office has the number at more than 140 killed, which averages to five journalists killed every week since the 7th of October.

Since the start of the war, at least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and 77,816 others injured in Gaza. More than 8,000 others are missing, buried under the rubble.

In April Jonathan Dagher, Head of RSF’s Middle East desk said in a statement:  “Gaza’s reporters must be protected, those who wish must be evacuated, and Gaza’s gates must be opened to international media.” 

The few reporters who have been able to leave bear witness to the same terrifying reality of journalists being attacked, injured and killed … Palestinian journalism must be protected as a matter of urgency.”

To measure the pulse of press freedom around the globe, the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes an annual index. It ranks the political, economic, and sociocultural context as well as the legal framework and security of the press in 180 countries and territories.

According to the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, Eritrea has the worst press freedom, followed by Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran.

RSF says that all independent media have been banned in Eritrea since the transition to a dictatorship in September 2001. The media is directly controlled by the Ministry of Information – a news agency, a few publications and Eri TV.

CPJ has found that as of December 1st, 2023, 320 journalists and media workers were imprisoned with China having been one of the worst culprits for some time.

Of the 44 journalists imprisoned in China, nearly half are Uighurs, where they have accused Beijing of crimes against humanity for its mass detentions and harsh repression of the region’s mostly-Muslim ethnic groups.