Groups urge EU to punish Israel for violating media rights

On Monday, sixty media freedom and human rights organisations signed a letter calling on the European Union to take decisive action against Israel for its escalating violations of press freedom and the killing of journalists in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Israel.

The joint statement, according to Al Jazeera, called for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the imposition of targeted sanctions on responsible Israeli officials. Prominent among the 60 organisations include the International Press Institute (IPI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Free Press Unlimited (FPU).

The organisations said there’s an urgent need for action against what they describe as “unprecedented violations of media freedom by Israeli authorities.”

“These are part of widespread and systematic abuses committed by Israeli authorities in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and elsewhere, as documented or acknowledged by Israeli, Palestinian and international NGOs, UN experts, the International Court of Justice, and in a request for arrest warrants by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,” the letter said.

“These violations should trigger the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and further EU targeted sanctions against those responsible.”

Since last October, Israel has faced accusations of systematic abuses, including the killing of more than 120 Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza, and the arrest and arbitrary detention of at least 49 journalists.

Recently, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said 72 out of the 99 journalists killed worldwide in 2023 were Palestinians reporting on Israel’s war on Gaza, making those 12 months the deadliest for the media in almost a decade.

Killings of reporters would have dropped globally year-on-year had it not been for the deaths in the ongoing war on Gaza, the CPJ said in its annual report released on Thursday.

Against this background, the press freedom organisations outlined eight actions taken by Israel that require an urgent response by the EU, including the targeted killing of journalists, a ban on independent media access to Gaza, and record-high arbitrary detention of journalists.

They also highlighted allegations of torture, enforced disappearances, and significant censorship within Israel and the Palestinian territory it occupies.

The cumulative effect of these violations, the letter said, was to create conditions conducive to propaganda and misinformation, ultimately undermining the path to peace and security.

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The coastal strip of land has been under siege since Hamas launched an attack on Israel on 7 October, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of the Israeli offensive, with little sign of a peace settlement in sight.