750 journalists from dozens of news organisations signed an open letter condemning the Israeli occupation’s killing of journalists in #Gaza and criticising Western media coverage of the war, according to the US newspaper The Washington Post today, Friday.
The letter included signatures from journalists at Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and the US newspaper The Washington Post.
The letter stated that Western media are responsible for the dehumanising rhetoric that has served the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
The newspaper said that this letter reflects the divisions and frustrations inside newsrooms.
The newspaper stated that signing the letter was, for some journalists, a bold and even dangerous step, adding that journalists at media organisations have been fired for adopting public political positions that could expose them to accusations of bias, in the newspaper’s words, without specifying these outlets.
The Washington Post noted that there has been much criticism from writers, artists, researchers and academics of the media coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza.
The letter said: “It is a call to recommit to justice and not abandon it.”
For his part, Abdallah Fayyad, a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist and former member of the Boston Globe’s editorial board who signed the letter, said: “I hope that after this letter the culture of fear around this issue will be reversed, and that decision-makers, reporters and editors will think twice about the language they use.”
