An international media association has condemned the Israeli government’s ongoing ban on unrestricted media access to Gaza, despite a ceasefire in the region. The Foreign Press Association (FPA) expressed its “profound disappointment” in a statement issued on Tuesday. This comes after the Israeli government informed the Supreme Court two days earlier that the ban would remain in place for “security reasons.”
Since the onset of the conflict in October 2023, Israel has prohibited foreign journalists from entering Gaza independently. The FPA’s petition aimed at securing unrestricted access for foreign media to cover events in the region. The organization represents journalists from various international news outlets operating in Israel, Gaza, and the occupied West Bank, and it plans to submit a “robust response” to the court in the coming days.
The FPA criticized the government’s decision to exclude journalists, stating, “Instead of presenting a plan for allowing journalists into Gaza independently and letting us work alongside our brave Palestinian colleagues, the government has decided once again to lock us out. This comes even when a ceasefire is now in place.”
Government’s Position on Media Access
The Israeli government has allowed a limited number of journalists embedded with the military to operate in Gaza on a case-by-case basis. In its court submission, the government cited the position of the defense establishment, arguing that granting broader media access could impede efforts to locate the remains of the last Israeli captive.
The FPA filed its petition to the court in September 2023, and the court has since granted multiple extensions to the government. Most recently, it set January 4, 2024, as a final deadline for the government to present a comprehensive plan for media access to Gaza.
The International Federation of Journalists has highlighted the dangers faced by media professionals in the region, marking Palestine as the deadliest place to work as a journalist in 2023. The organization reported that 56 Palestinian media professionals lost their lives during the year. Since the outbreak of war, nearly 300 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, according to Shireen.ps, a monitoring website named after the late Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
The continued restriction on media access raises significant concerns about transparency and the ability of journalists to report independently from conflict zones. As the situation in Gaza evolves, the FPA and other media organizations are advocating for the rights of journalists to work freely and safely in the region.
