Why Journalism Matters
Surviving as a reporter in Gaza. RSF launches a special Christmas present for the Russian speaking world. More than 100 years on, an undercover report on poverty in East London still resonates
5 minute read
As we celebrate a year of great investigative journalism, we remember those reporters who have lost their lives in Gaza
We all know that journalists take their lives in their hands in war situations, but it must always be kept in mind that targeting journalists deliberately is considered a war crime under international law, and states and military authorities are obligated to protect the safety of journalists.
Despite the ‘legal safeguards’, the two major conflicts that have exploded into violence in this decade have killed many working journalists and continue to be dangerous places for reporters and editors to work.
In Ukraine, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine concludes that 63 journalists and media workers (both domestic and foreign) have been killed in the country since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
But unsurprisingly, the deadliest conflict for journalists in living memory is the war that has erupted in Gaza following the Hamas massacres of Israeli civilians on October 7.
Of the more than 19,000 civilians who have died in this war, at least 64 journalists and media workers have been confirmed killed since October 7, including 57 Palestinians, 4 Israelis and 3 Lebanese.
In addition, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that as of December 17:
· 13 journalists were reported injured.
· 3 journalists were reported missing.
· 19 journalists were reported arrested.
· In addition there have been multiple assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members.
CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg has described this war as “unprecedented for the rate in which journalists are being killed…like no other we have seen.”
In a special report for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism based in the UK, reporter Matthew Leake talks to journalists on the frontline in Gaza.
Leake spoke to three Palestinian journalists working in Gaza about their daily exposure to risk, particularly from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and the “extreme practical challenges and moral dilemmas posed in the course of their reporting.” They try to carry on daily reporting while their friends and family struggle for survival while trying to find shelter, food and water.
One of these was Al Jazeera English reporter Youmna ElSayed whose husband received an anonymous phone call warning him and his family to leave their home.
The voice on the other end told him: “‘You're speaking to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]. You need to take your family and leave your home right now. Otherwise, your life will be in danger.’”
Changed SIM
As Leake adds: “ElSayed, who works as an Al Jazeera English correspondent, had just changed her SIM card and the army didn’t have her phone number. So she believes her family was being targeted due to her work as a journalist.
“No other families in her apartment block got the same personal notification; mass evacuation orders usually come in the form of a recorded voice message. ElSayed took this not as a warning but as a threat.”
The Gaza reporters are under no illusion about how vulnerable they are in the face of the Israeli military onslaught.
Leake reports: “On 2 November Palestine TV reporter Salman al-Bashir removed his flak jacket and helmet as he broadcast live outside Nasser Hospital in the south of Gaza.
“Al-Bashir was reporting on the death of his colleague Mohammed Abu Hatab, who had been killed alongside 11 members of his family by an airstrike on their Khan Younis home.”
“These protection jackets and helmets don’t protect us. Nothing protects journalists,” he said to the studio anchor as she wept.
Aljazeera’s ElSayed goes further in her condemnation of the value of flak jackets and vehicles marked ‘press’
“If you wear your flak jacket 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,” she told Leake, commenting that the press identification effectively puts a target on her back.
Press vests
“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.”
A major issue that worries the press in general is the attitude that the Israeli government takes towards journalists, particularly Palestinians. Most recently the X Twitter feed of the Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu accused some journalists of being ‘accomplices in crimes against humanity’ identifying some who Israel claimed had prior knowledge of the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
The CPJ has also carried out intensive investigations into the impunity with which Palestinian journalists have been killed over the past 20 years. The IDF has killed at least 22 journalists over the past two decades. There has never been an attempt by the IDF to investigate these deaths and no one—civilian or military— has ever been held to account for them.
Freelance journalist Yousef Alhelou comes from Gaza but has escaped to the UK where he has monitored the situation in his home from afar. He thinks the horriffic circumstances are taking a toll on many of his colleagues in Gaza.
“[Journalists'] resilience has been shaken, but at the end of the day we are human beings,” he says. “We are not superheroes. Many journalists are worried and don't sleep enough. They say ‘this is the only thing we can do. We are the eyes of the world. We will continue reporting whatever it takes.’”:
Reference
Reuters Institute report on journalists in Gaza
CPJ report on journalists’ deaths in Palestine
5 minute read
RSF initiative reaches out to Russian-speaking audiences with free and independent news and information
Reporters without Borders (RSF) the press freedom and journalistic charity based in Paris and championed by WJM has decided to bestow an early Christmas present on the Russian speaking world.
Or at least all those Russian speakers who value independent, pluralistic and professional journalism.
RSF’s Christmas project is called the Svoboda satellite bouquet—a dedicated satellite broadcasting service aimed at providing independent news and information to Russian speaking audiences. The project is made possible by a contractual arrangement with the global satellite operator Eutelsat.
Svoboda which means ‘freedom’ in Russian is a significant step forward in making ‘unrestricted access’ available to the Russian region where freedom of the press has been greatly curtailed by the Putin regime since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The outcome is hoped to be a more informed and diverse media landscape.
Comprehensive and objective view
As RSF explains: “The bouquet will feature news programs to offer a comprehensive and objective view of global events. RSF will ensure the playout of the content for Svoboda, [is] in compliance with the highest journalistic standards. Specific media and ethics committees will be set up to guarantee that the satellite package is operated according to the best standards in terms of journalism.”
Until recently Eutelsat has been criticised by the Denis Diderot Committee (who are also championing Svoboda) and others for carrying mainstream Russian ‘propaganda’ channels, citing the Eutelsat convention signed in 2002 which states that Eutelsat content should include ‘respect for freedom of expression and information, respect for human dignity, media pluralism and fair reporting, and a ban on incitement to violence or racial hatred in the broadcast media”.
(The Denis Diderot Committee was created in March 2022 to contribute to the restoration of the free flow of information, without war propaganda, between Europe and Russia with a view to providing support to Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian civil societies.)
There are obviously many technical and logistical issues that arise from such a project and in a separate email to RSF supporters after the initial announcement deputy secretary general Thibaut Bruttin sought to answer specific inquiries about the service.
Will Russian citizens in Russia be able to access this satellite bouquet?
The satellite’s footprint is big and includes territories where Russian-speaking people live – not only the Russian Federation itself but also the Baltic countries and the occupied parts of Ukraine.
Will the Kremlin be able to prevent people from receiving these programmes?
The content will be available free of charge on TV sets to those who have the appropriate equipment. This is a great alternative to the Internet where the threat of YouTube blocking and the growing penalisation of VPN usage is liable to restrict access to freely reported news even more. RSF has established that these satellite broadcasts will mainly come under French jurisdiction and that jamming them will be technically impossible.
Who is funding this project?
RSF is currently financing this project by means of funding assigned to crisis response, but plans to raise more funding from both private and public sector donors.
RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire explained his ambitions and hope for the project:
"The Svoboda Satellite Bouquet is an ambitious initiative that intends to reverse the logic of propaganda. Instead of having flows of content under authoritarian control from Russia to the democratic countries, in order to destabilise democracies, it will allow independent media outlets to broadcast toward human beings that do not enjoy their right to information.
“ This is not just about defending press freedom, this is about creating the concrete conditions for the circulation of free and independent news and information... We believe in the power of journalism to shape societies and promote transparency and accountability.”
Reference
RSF launches Svoboda satellite bouquet
4 minute read
Paying tribute to a classic of undercover reporting about the lives of the poor in East London
In November 1903--almost exactly 120 years ago-- a sensational undercover report casting a spotlight on the widespread and squalid poverty of East London was published.
Entitled The People of the Abyss, it was written by the legendary American author, Jack London who rose to international fame in the wake of his two best-selling novels about the Klondike gold rush in Canada’s northern Yukon territory, White Fang and The Call of the Wild.
It’s a remarkable read—part adventure story, part polemic and part eyewitness sociological journalism.
At a stroke, it shamed the extravagant inequality and cruel neglect of the British empire at the height of its power and influence, just as a new king, Edward VII was being crowned. Although poverty in east London had been written about before this was the first time a journalist had spent several weeks talking to the destitute and experiencing their lives.
Although primarily remembered as a novelist, London was also a prolific journalist who wrote about travel, sports and politics. Another well known book The Road described his life as a cross-country hobo in America eking out an existence. He was also a prolific photographer, taking more than 12,000 photographs in his lifetime, showcasing people and cultures from around the world.
Living conditions
But The People of the Abyss remains his most impactful piece of journalism, and although the living conditions for the poor in London have improved markedly over the last century, London and other major UK cities remain scarred by homelessness, and people continue to die in the streets as a result of the deprivation they face.
The People of the Abyss is hailed as a literary masterpiece, and it inspired a young George Orwell to immerse himself in the life of the poor, their stories told in Down and Out in London and Paris and The Road to Wigan Pier.
Years later London remained profoundly moved by the degradation that he witnessed. He declared: "No other book of mine took so much of my young heart and tears as that study of the economic degradation of the poor."
How would he feel now, seeing people sleeping rough in London in the same locations that he found them more than a 100 years ago?
In addition to spending weeks observing what life was like, London looked at court records, press coverage and government documents. As a result he found that one in four adults in the capital would die on public charity ‘either in the workhouse, the infirmary or the asylum’. Life expectancy in the East End was only 30 years and 55 per cent of children died under the age of five.
A cogent analysis of London’s findings is offered by Stephen McCloskey, writing in Open Democracy in 2016.
No reprieve
“From the outset, London presented his journey and that of his co-habitants in the East End as a ‘descent’ into a hellish, miserable existence — an abyss — from which there was no reprieve. The devastating poverty he witnessed had obvious underpinnings: workers paid between one quarter and a half of their weekly income in rent, and the rooms they occupied were unfit for animals, much less adults and children.
“Poor light, sanitation, dampness, vermin, lack of ventilation and personal privacy created environmental squalor that destroyed the moral and physical conditioning of decent hard-working people.”
The historical importance of the book is eloquently summed up by reviewer Rosita Sweetman in the Irish Times on the republication of The People of the Abyss by in 2017.
“Hats off to Tangerine Press for re-publishing Call of the Wild, author Jack London's descent into London's east end in the 1900s. Sent to cover Edward VII's coronation, he went in search of the real story – the stinking slums. Doffing his Yankee togs for filthy rags purchased off a barrow in Petticoat Lane, the young, vigorous, handsome, American spent seven weeks amidst foul tenements, starving children, alcoholic adults, stunted human beings and bottomless despair.
“London rails against the industrial machine – operating without restriction in a divided metropolis where one in every four adults died on public charity. People of the Abyss shows how far we have come, but also the dangers of a new abyss yawning as global capitalism dumps unions and enforces zero-hour contracts, and the global arms industry's bombs drive millions from their homes.”
Undoubtedly some of London’s observations would certainly court controversy today, particularly his open flirtation with eugenics as a way of dealing with the problem of the poor.
He writes: “And day by day I became convinced that not only is it unwise, but it is criminal for the people of the Abyss to marry. They are the stones by the builder rejected. There is no place for them in the social fabric while all the forces of society drive them downward till they perish.”
Despite being a book of its time, the people of the Abyss remains a page-turning classic of undercover reporting and social crusading, still highly relevant in today’s uncertain and unequal world.
Reference
Open Democracy report: Today’s People of the Abyss
Many thanks for reading Why Journalism Matters in 2023. Hundreds of readers in 15 countries read the bi-weekly English edition, and our French edition finds its way to 12 countries around the world. Both continue to find new readers and supporters.
Very special thanks to my friend and translator Elisabeth JOURDAN-MAGNIEN who has been a steadfast champion since WJM began publishing in January 2021. I am indebted to her—both for her professionalism and her commitment
Have a wonderful holiday and we will return with renewed vigour and dedication the week commencing January 8, 2024
It’s free to subscribe and you can cancel anytime, so give it a try!
Contact us on greatjournalismwjm@gmail.com
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
facebook.com/whyjournalism matters
X-twitter @JournalismWhy
Et maintenant disponible en français!