Journalists from some thirty media outlets in the Netherlands have asked the country’s foreign minister, Caspar Veldkamp, to take action for the safety of their Palestinian colleagues, in a letter sent to him on Wednesday 11 June.
The signatories rely on data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, an American association that has counted “at least 184 journalists and media workers” killed in the Palestinian territories since October 2023. Among them, “at least 17 journalists [...] have been targeted by Israeli forces” and “at least 20 more cases [...] seem to involve targeted attacks“. In February 2024, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression noted Israel’s deliberate strategy “to obstruct media and prevent critical reporting”.
The Dutch minister is therefore being asked to initiate a declaration by the Media Freedom Coalition “condemning Israeli violations of press freedom”, to launch an independent enquiry into the murdered journalists, to include press freedom violations in the EU’s review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and to demand that Israel allow international journalists access to Gaza.
See the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/hah (Original version in French by Florent Servia)