Committee to Protect Journalists condemns killing of three journalists in latest Israeli strikes

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Three journalists and two teenage boys are among 11 people who have been killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza in the last 24 hours. It comes as the Committee to Protect Journalists releases its latest report on journalists imprisoned globally. Jodie Ginsberg from the CPJ has condemned the attack.

Transcript

00:00Well, we are horrified by these latest killings. This appears to be a deliberate targeted attack

00:08on a vehicle that was clearly labeled as a humanitarian vehicle run by the Egyptian

00:15Committee for Relief in Gaza. These three journalists, we understand, were taking images

00:20using a drone of the aid being distributed by the Egyptian Committee in Gaza and they were targeted,

00:26we understand, because of the suspicions around the drone. The use of drones is very common by

00:33journalists and unfortunately we're seeing more and more of this kind of targeted attack and this

00:37is a pattern that we've seen in particular from Israel which has been the leading killer of

00:43journalists over the last two and a half years. Well, the Israeli military says that troops had

00:49identified several suspects who were operating a drone and were affiliated with Hamas and that

00:54the incident is under investigation. If we can get on to your annual report now, Jodie, into

01:00imprisoned journalists, can you talk us through the numbers and locations of where journalists are

01:06being held? Well, sadly, the picture is pretty grim. For the third year in a row, we've seen more than

01:11300 journalists in prison around the world at the end of the year. The leading jailers of journalists are

01:17China, Myanmar and Israel, followed by Belarus and Russia. And we're seeing a pattern of increasing

01:26criminalisation of journalists, treating the act of journalism itself as criminal and arresting

01:32journalists and prosecuting them and persecuting them as a result. What efforts are being made to free

01:40journalists, Jodie, and how many were released last year? Well, we continue to campaign for journalists

01:46worldwide. One of the things that we can do is make sure that countries like Australia, which are

01:53champions of press freedom or purport to uphold international humanitarian law, do everything they

01:59can to campaign on behalf not only of their own journalists, but those who are in jail around the

02:04world. A third of the journalists in jail currently are in Asia, and it's really vital that we impress upon

02:12countries around the world the importance of journalists being free so that they can continue

02:16to do their work. It is a time when we desperately need accurate information. We've heard so many stories

02:23just today about the actions of the US and their threats towards Greenland and Europe and others.

02:29We need journalists who are able to investigate and report that information.

02:36Just briefly back to Gaza, if we could, Jodie, what's your view in the access international

02:40journalists are being given to the territory? Well, the lack of access to Gaza since October

02:47the 7th has been unprecedented. We speak to journalists who've covered wars over the past

02:52three decades, and they've never experienced the level of restriction that we are currently seeing

02:57from Israel into Gaza. We continue to call on the international community and on Israel to press for

03:04access. It's important that we have independent international journalists who are able to go in to

03:09support their guards and colleagues who have been our ears for the past two years. We have to leave it

03:14there. Jodie Ginsberg, thank you so much. Thank you.

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