Press Freedom Groups Urge Biden To Demand Israel Allow Media Access In Gaza

At least 18 press freedom and human rights groups expressed their support on Monday for a congressional letter urging the Biden administration to demand that Israel allow independent access into Gaza for U.S. and international journalists.

The statement of support was published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media watchdog that has been tracking the historic number of journalist casualties resulting from Israel’s ongoing decimation of Gaza. Since the invasion, Israeli forces have blocked foreign media from being able to independently access the Palestinian territory.

“While more than 4,000 international journalists have traveled to Israel to cover the ongoing war, Israel continues to deny them access to Gaza except for rare and tightly controlled military-led press tours to the war-torn territory,” the statement reads. “This effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an impossible and unreasonable burden on Palestinian reporters in Gaza to document an ongoing war through which they are living.”

More than 128 journalists have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023, according to CPJ, which declared last year that Gaza was the “most dangerous ever” war zone for reporters. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate places the number at 167 killed, thousands more injured, and at least 124 facing abuse and torture in the Israeli military’s shadowy prisons.

According to the International Federation of Journalists, the mortality rate for media workers in Gaza is more than 10% — most of them Palestinians who continue to record attacks on their people while trying to stay alive.

“Those who remain in Gaza are working in conditions of extreme deprivation and face intimidation, violence and arrest by Israeli authorities. Many have lost their limbs, homes or families.” the Monday statement said.

Israeli forces have also bombed Palestinian journalists’ homes and workplaces — accusing them, without evidence, of working for Hamas. Those journalists are working in what the press freedom groups described as “an eviscerated media landscape,” where the Israeli military destroys their offices and equipment while regularly shutting down internet access.

“This creates a vacuum for propaganda and mis- and disinformation, and undermines the public’s right to know about the devastating impact of the Israel-Gaza war,” the statement read.

In July, more than 70 media and civil society organizations collectively urged Israel to allow independent media access to Gaza. The organizations included The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, the BBC, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The Monday statement is in support of an Oct. 11 letter signed by 65 House Democrats calling for the White House and the State Department to push for unrestricted international media access to Gaza, to ensure that “the world can bear witness to the realities on the ground and hold all parties accountable.”

“The restrictions on media reporting have created significant challenges in obtaining accurate, verifiable information from Gaza, leading to increased skepticism about the limited reports that do emerge,” the congressional letter read. “At a time when reliable information is more critical than ever, the restrictions on foreign reporting undermine the very foundation of press freedom and democratic accountability.”