Media outlets call for protection of journalists working in Gaza

More than 30 news organisations sign open letter demanding freedom to report conflict in safety

More than 30 news organisations have signed an open letter expressing solidarity with journalists working in Gaza and calling for their protection and freedom to report.

The letter, coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), was signed by global news agencies AFP, AP and Reuters, as well as other leading media outlets including the Guardian, the New York Times, BBC News and Israel’s Haaretz.

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Secret tribunal to hear claims police spied on Northern Ireland journalists

Judges urged to keep proceedings as open as possible in case relating to Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey

Allegations that UK police and intelligence spied on investigative journalists to identify their sources will be heard by a secret tribunal on Wednesday, with judges urged to ensure as much as possible takes place in open court.

Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey asked the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) to look into whether police in Northern Ireland and Durham, as well as MI5 and GCHQ, used intrusive surveillance powers against them.

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French journalist arrested in Ethiopia accused of ‘conspiracy to create chaos’

Antoine Galindo is accused of conspiring with rebels, but press freedom groups say no evidence has been found and call for his immediate release

Ethiopian authorities have detained a visiting French journalist for being part of a “conspiracy to create chaos” in the east African country.

Antoine Galindo, a reporter for the Paris-based Africa Intelligence (AI) news website, was arrested by plainclothes security officers at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel on Thursday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

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Al Jazeera reporter and camera operator seriously hurt in Israeli airstrike in Gaza

Correspondent Ismail Abu Omar and photojournalist Ahmad Matar allegedly targeted by IDF

An Al Jazeera correspondent and a photojournalist working with him have been seriously injured in an Israeli airstrike that allegedly targeted the pair while they were working in Gaza.

According to the Doha-based news network, Ismail Abu Omar, one of its correspondents as well as his camera operator, Ahmad Matar, were in northern Rafah where they were documenting the living conditions of displaced Palestinian families when they were directly targeted by a missile fired by a drone.

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Putin says release of US journalist Evan Gershkovich may be possible

Russian president suggests detained Wall Street reporter could be freed in prisoner exchange

Vladimir Putin has said he believes “an agreement can be reached” to free the imprisoned US journalist Evan Gershkovich, hinting he would trade him for a Russian killer serving a life sentence in Germany.

Speaking on Thursday to Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, Putin said he did not rule out the possibility of Gershkovich returning “to his motherland”.

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Palestinian journalist leaves Gaza after 108 days chronicling war

Photojournalist Motaz Azaiza says he left ‘with a broken heart’ and hopes to return to help rebuild Gaza

The Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, a key chronicler of the war in Gaza, has been evacuated from the strip and found refuge in Qatar.

Azaiza, 24, who has 18.5 million Instagram followers, said in a video posted to the platform this week that he had been able to secure passage out of the blockaded coastal territory after documenting 108 days of the impact on civilians of the conflict between Hamas and Israel.

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Israel added to list of ‘worst jailers of journalists’ for first time

Israel is in sixth place after the Committee to Protect Journalists recorded 18 Palestinian journalists in its jails

Israel has joined a notorious band of authoritarian states with a history of imprisoning journalists by detaining Palestinian reporters without trial since the beginning of the latest war in Gaza.

A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released on Thursday said that for the first time Israel figures in its list of “worst jailers of journalists”, putting it on a par with Iran.

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Al Jazeera journalist arrested in Tunisia amid crackdown on freedom of press

Samir Sassi joins growing number of journalists imprisoned and prosecuted in country

Tunisian authorities have arrested an Al Jazeera reporter, the network’s bureau chief said on Thursday, as campaigners voiced concern over a growing number of journalists behind bars in the north African country.

“Samir Sassi, a journalist at the Al Jazeera office in Tunisia, was arrested after security forces raided his house,” said Lotfi Hajji, director of the Qatar-based television network’s bureau in Tunis.

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Israeli military accused of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza

Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 68 journalists and media workers killed since 7 October

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza amid the highest death toll of media workers in any recent conflict.

The New York-based CPJ said at least 68 journalists and other media workers had been killed in Gaza, Israel and southern Lebanon since the Hamas cross-border attack on 7 October and subsequent Israeli assault.

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Russian American journalist Masha Gessen put on Kremlin’s wanted list

Prominent journalist – who lives in the US – was placed on the list after discussing atrocities committed in Ukraine by Russian forces

Russian police have put prominent Russian American journalist and author Masha Gessen on a wanted list after opening a criminal case against them on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army.

It is the latest step in an unrelenting crackdown against dissent in Russia that has intensified since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine more than 21 months ago, on 24 February 2022.

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Almost 100 journalists killed and 400 imprisoned in 2023, says report

International Federation of Journalists says 68 killed covering Israel-Hamas war, more than in any other conflict in over 30 years

A leading organisation representing journalists worldwide has expressed deep concern at the number of media professionals killed around the globe doing their jobs in 2023, with more journalists killed during Israel’s war with Hamas than in any other conflict in more than 30 years.

In its annual count of media worker deaths, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said 94 journalists had been killed so far this year and almost 400 others had been imprisoned.

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Fears raised after Hong Kong journalist fails to return from China trip

Minnie Chan has reportedly been out of contact since travelling to Xiangshan Forum a month ago

Friends and colleagues of a Hong Kong journalist have raised concerns after she failed to return from a defence and security forum in Beijing a month ago.

Minnie Chan, a reporter for the South China Morning Post, has not been in contact since she went to the Xiangshan Forum, Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Thursday. Chan filed several stories from the forum, the most recent of which was published on 2 November.

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Nine men to be tried for murder of Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries

Hearing to start in January in case of journalist shot in the street in 2021 who was adviser to a witness in trial of a Dutch drug baron

Nine men suspected of the murder of prominent Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries will go on trial in January, a Dutch court has announced, with a verdict expected by the summer.

De Vries was gunned down on a busy Amsterdam street on 6 July 2021, shortly after leaving a TV studio where he had appeared as a guest on a programme.

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Five Mexican journalists shot and injured in one day as violence deepens

Four photojournalists shot in Guerrero state and reporter in Michoacán, where battles between cartels and local gangs rage

Five Mexican journalists have been shot and wounded in a single day, in the worst day of violence against the country’s press in more than 10 years.

In one of the attacks on Tuesday, four photojournalists were shot near a military barracks in the southern Guerrero state after they returned from a crime scene. They had been covering one of the many homicides that occur on a near-daily basis in the city of Chilpancingo. State prosecutors said they consider it a case of attempted murder.

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Kidnappers free two of three journalists taken in Mexico, group says

Silvia Arce and Alberto Sánchez, who were kidnapped on Wednesday, freed unharmed

Two of three journalists recently kidnapped in southern Mexico have been freed unharmed, the journalists’ international free-speech group Article 19 said in a statement on Saturday.

Silvia Arce and Alberto Sánchez, who lead the digital RedSiete platform, were released during the early hours of the morning, the organisation said.

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Israel-Hamas war is deadliest conflict on record for reporters, says watchdog

The IDF’s offensive in Gaza has killed 48 members of the press and caused a ‘news blackout’, says Committee to Protect Journalists

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has produced the deadliest month for journalists since statistics began more than three decades ago, and created a news blackout in the embattled territory, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said.

The reporters’ watchdog has recorded the deaths of 48 reporters since Hamas embarked on a murderous killing spree in Israel on 7 October, triggering a concerted Israeli bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza in response.

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Photographer shot dead in fifth journalist killing in Mexico in 2023

Body of Ismael Villagómez found in a car as the Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the killing to be investigated

A photographer for a newspaper in the notoriously violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez was found shot dead in the driver’s seat of a car, prosecutors said, in the fifth killing of a journalist in the country so far in 2023.

The body of Ismael Villagómez was found just after midnight Thursday. The newspaper he worked for, the Heraldo de Juarez, said the news photographer was found dead in a car that he had registered to use for work for a ride-hailing app. In Mexico, many journalists take work outside the profession to pay the bills.

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Philippines radio journalist shot dead during live broadcast

Killer of Juan Jumalon, 57, pretended to be a listener to enter home studio in Misamis Occidental province

A radio anchor in the southern Philippines has been fatally shot in his studio in a brazen attack witnessed by people watching the programme live on Facebook.

The gunman gained entry to the home-based radio station of Juan Jumalon, a provincial news broadcaster known also as DJ Johnny Walker, by pretending to be a listener. He then shot him twice during a live morning broadcast in Calamba town in Misamis Occidental province, police said.

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Al Jazeera journalist who lost his family in Gaza airstrike returns to work

Wael al-Dahdouh’s wife, children and grandson were killed in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Tuesday

Israel and Hamas at war – live updates

An Al Jazeera correspondent has returned to work just days after his entire immediate family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

Wael al-Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in the strike late on Tuesday. They had moved to a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza following Israel’s warning on 13 October.

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Al Jazeera says Israeli airstrike killed the family of its Gaza correspondent

The wife, son, daughter and grandson of Wael al-Dahdouh, the bureau chief in Gaza, were targeted at a relief camp, outlet says

An Al Jazeera correspondent is mourning the loss of his entire immediate family after they were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

The family of Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, had moved to a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza after Israel’s warning on 13 October to those in the northern half of the territory to leave.

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