The Foreign Press Association in Denmark (FPA) is the organization for foreign journalists who work in Denmark for global media.
We are deeply concerned by the high number of journalists who have been killed while serving in Gaza during the past 11 months.
Never before have so many journalists been killed in an armed conflict. Over150 correspondents are reported killed in Gaza.
World War II – the biggest war in history – resulted in the deaths of 63 journalists, and the same number of journalists died during the 20-year-long Vietnam war.
Journalists are not in Gaza to fight, rather, they are there to document the truth of the war between Israel and Hamas, which has been going on for nearly 11 months with no sign of ending.
The tragic loss of lives among this very vulnerable group of media members, regardless of whether is accidental or deliberate, is appalling.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) says on its platform (www.ifj.org) that it has proof that the Israeli Defense Force has deliberately targeted journalists, and some of these cases are currently the subject of a complaint file before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Our partner organisation, the Danish Union of Journalists (Dansk Journalistforbund, DJ), has also expressed criticism of the killings of these journalists.
DJ’s chairperson, Tina Johansen, has along with 59 other international journalist unions and media organisations, sent a joint appeal to the EU to intervene and guarantee the safety of the free press in Gaza.
“It is wholly unacceptable that members of the press who are working hard to report from one of the world’s crisis zones are at risk of losing their lives while carrying out their work. Photographers, journalists etc. are our eyes and ears in a conflict that can have major implications beyond the borders of Israel and Gaza. This is why the media presence there is so important as they can provide objective reports from an otherwise hermetically sealed region,” Tina Johansen said on the DJ platform (journalistforbundet.dk).
We in the FPA join in the critical stance of our head organisation IFJ and the DJ to the deaths of journalists, and we appeal to the Danish government, the EU and the relevant international institutions and governments to increase the pressure on the warring combatants to protect our journalist colleagues in Israel and Palestine in their coverage of the war in Gaza.
Foreign Press Association in Denmark
13.09.2024