December Issue
By Colette Yamashita Holcomb
February
Western media publications and broadcasters have cut back on foreign correspondence since the late 1990s, including closing or downsizing their bureaus abroad due to economic pressures. While news organizations grapple with industry shifts due to globalization and new technologies, journalists face more imminent danger while reporting conflict than ever.
Over 100 journalists have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war so far. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate alleges Israel directly targeted 96 journalists, but exact numbers have yet to be confirmed. Covering war is already a dangerous task, but journalists in Gaza face exceptionally high risks covering the Israeli ground assaults, including airstrikes alongside food and medical supply shortages, power outages, and communication lapses. The president of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Jodie Ginsberg, stated this war is the deadliest conflict for journalists they have recorded in over 30 years of their operation, especially because journalists are dying at such a high rate in such a short period.
Human rights and press freedom organizations have also kept their eyes on Russia’s war on Ukraine. According to CPJ, at least 15 journalists were killed in Ukraine in 2022, with 13 confirmed to have been killed while reporting. Most journalists died in the early stages of the war, but three reporters and media workers were killed in 2023, including French cameraman Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff in May 2023.
Still, journalists face physical danger. Ukrainian, as well as other international journalists, are often injured by shelling, some also report that Russian forces have directly targeted them. One such reporter was the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich, who has spent nearly a year detained by the Russian Federal Security Service. Despite his full press credentials from Russia's foreign ministry, the RFS detained him on espionage claims. A claim which Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal, and the US government forcefully denied.
Another significant change, particularly in the Gaza war, has been the emergence of social media documentation. As major media organizations are restricted from reporting directly in Gaza, local Palestinians have taken to these platforms to document the war. This real-time, unfiltered reporting has gained traction, especially on platforms such as Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter. While foreign correspondents — particularly from Western countries — used to be the central source of information, people worldwide connect with these journalists and rely on their social media pages for updates. Some of these reporters in Gaza are now affiliated with certain media groups, but many have remained independent, such as Motaz Azaiza and Bisan Owda.
While journalists have never been invincible, standards are evidently changing within these wars. This highlights a lack of respect for press credentials; what used to symbolize protection for journalists — such as wearing press designations on their jackets — is no longer a guarantee of safety for journalists.
“If you wear your flak jacket [a protective vest that protects the body from shrapnel] and your helmet, you have the press logo, and you are moving with a car that has the TV logo, even all of that doesn't protect you,” said Nagham Mohanna, a Gaza-based reporter for The National.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera correspondent Youmna ElSayed told the Reuters Institute. “We got to the point where wearing our press vests seems like putting ourselves in danger. We’re afraid to wear them because we don't want to label ourselves as journalists.”
In late October, Israeli officials informed international news organizations — including Reuters and Agence France Presse — that it cannot guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip. This statement occurred a little over a week after Israeli tank fire killed a Reuters visual journalist on the Lebanese border. This incident also injured six other reporters, including journalists from Agence France Presse and Al Jazeera. All reporters were wearing blue flak jackets and helmets, most with “PRESS” written on them in white letters. Collaborative investigations by Reuters, Agence France Presse, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International later concluded this was “likely a direct attack on civilians that must be investigated as a war crime.”
Few international journalists have been able to enter Gaza without being embedded by the Israeli Defense Forces — meaning they are attached to military units during their reporting. In Russia, Western news organizations struggle with the harsh crackdown on free speech by President Vladimir V. Putin, leading many to pull correspondents from Moscow and suspend news reporting or broadcasting in Russia. This decision followed Putin’s censorship law, where journalists who described the war as a “war” could be sentenced to prison which effectively criminalizes independent journalism covering the invasion of Ukraine. Without authorization from Israel or Russia, journalists struggle to provide unbiased, consistent, and efficient coverage of the wars.
These dramatic shifts in norms raise the question: what obligations do governments have to protect journalists, especially those who do not report for their country? According to international law, deliberately targeting journalists — whether with violence, unjust imprisonment, or torture — is a war crime. Journalists receive the full scope of protection granted to civilians and thus cannot be considered military targets. Still, it can be difficult to prove — especially in an area as condensed as Gaza — that strikes are always intentional.
There is also an important distinction between the differences in protections for war correspondents who are formally authorized to accompany armed forces and journalists as outlined in the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols. Both are recognized as civilians, but only war correspondents are entitled to prisoner-of-war status, as they are granted the same legal status as armed forces members upon capture.
In the evolving landscape of conflict journalism, the safety of journalists is increasingly compromised, evident in the staggering number of casualties during the Israel-Gaza war and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The traditional protections associated with press credentials and designated attire have lost their efficacy, leaving journalists vulnerable to targeted attacks and imprisonment. Moreover, independent, on-the-ground reporting can leave reporters more vulnerable to attacks, wrongful detainment, and intimidation without representation from larger media organizations. These challenges faced by journalists raise urgent questions about the responsibilities of governments to safeguard those who strive to bring unbiased and essential information to the world amidst these changing dynamics.