#violence against journalists

[a-tiny-voice-against-war-crimes]

Journalism is so, so important. Criticize journalists or the news all you will, but their work is absolutely vital in making sure we don't carry on with our lives oblivious and uncaring as war and genocide destroy the lives of thousands globally. Restricting and carrying out violence against journalists is one of the starkest warning signs of a government's tyranny. The sacrifices of journalists MUST be remembered, and I honor all of the journalists, other media reporters, influencers and ordinary civilians who have risked or even sacrificed their lives to atrocities for what they are.

I’d just like to acknowledge that South Africa wouldn’t have such a strong case without the work of the journalists, both alive and martyred, on the ground in Gaza supplying the world with firsthand information about the genocide and that they deserve thanks for it.

[fakeosphere]

[endimpunityday]

SESSION I: Safety of journalists in Conflicts: Risks, Protections, and the role of the international community.

Session I: International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists 2024.

9:50 - 10:10 am.

Keynote Speaker: H.E. Ourveena Geereesha Topsy-Sonoo, ACHPR Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to information in Africa.

- Ms. May Al-Rahal, Member, National Safety Committee of Iraq

Ms. Zoe Titus, Chair, Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), ED, Namibia Media Trust

- Mr. Andreas Papaconstantinou (TBC), Director of the Division for Neighborhood and Middle East – DG ECHO

[youthchronical]

'I shouldn't have left': Trump revisits 2020 election defeat, says he wouldn't mind if someone shot through 'fake news' to get him - Times of India

Former US President Donald Trump Former US President Donald Trump gave a speech on Sunday in Lititz, Pennsylvania, where he talked about violence against journalists and reporters being shot. In his remarks, Trump further cast doubt on the integrity of the election and revisited old grievances from his 2020 defeat, as reported by the Associated Press.In his address, Trump also questioned the…

[palms-upturned]

Israel says reporters working during Hamas attack ‘accomplices in crimes against humanity’

Nov 9th, 10:50 GMT

The Israeli prime minister’s office says it has sent a letter to the bureau chiefs of international media outlets demanding explanations over their use of pictures taken by journalists during Hamas’s attack on October 7.

“These journalists were accomplices in crimes against humanity; their actions were contrary to professional ethics,” read a statement by the office.

Similar remarks were made by Israel’s war cabinet minister Benny Gantz: “Journalists found to have known about the massacre, and still chose to stand as idle bystanders while children were slaughtered – are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such,” Gantz said on X.

On Wednesday, Israeli monitoring group Honest Reporting questioned why Gaza-based journalists working for The Associated Press and Reuters were present in the early hours of the October 7 attack.

On Thursday, Reuters denied any suggestion it had prior knowledge of the Hamas attack.

Meanwhile, the number of journalists and media workers killed since the start of the war stands at 39, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists: 34 Palestinian, four Israeli and one Lebanese.

Reuters denies suggestions it was aware of Hamas attack

Nov 9th, 12:00 GMT

Reuters has denied suggestions made by HonestReporting that it had prior knowledge of Hamas’s attack on October 7.

Here’s the statement from the news agency:

“We are aware of a report by HonestReporting and accusations made against two freelance photographers who contributed to Reuters coverage of the Oct. 7 attack.

“Reuters categorically denies that it had prior knowledge of the attack or that we embedded journalists with Hamas on Oct. 7.

“Reuters acquired photographs from two Gaza-based freelance photographers who were at the border on the morning of Oct. 7, with whom it did not have a prior relationship.

“The photographs published by Reuters were taken two hours after Hamas fired rockets across southern Israel and more than 45 minutes after Israel said gunmen had crossed the border.

“Reuters staff journalists were not on the ground at the locations referred to in the HonestReporting article.”

Palestinian journalist told to evacuate from Gaza City

Nov 9th, 12:10 GMT

Palestinian journalist and writer Mohammed Mhawish said he received a call at about 1:30pm (11:30 GMT) in Gaza City from an unknown source who identified themselves as an officer of the Israeli army.

During the call, Mhawish was given 20 minutes to evacuate his house with about 30 members of his family.

“I have received several pre-recorded calls from the military to evacuate,” Mhawish told Al Jazeera.

“They were all generally addressed to the residents of the north and the centre of the Gaza Strip to go south,” he said, adding: “But this time, the speaker, who sounded [like] a Hebrew native, said my full name. He sounded threatening.”

Mhawish, who has been reporting on the war for Al Jazeera from Gaza City, was “sure the call meant to scare and silence him”.

He added that the Israeli military officer warned him not to return to his house again at all, and said: “We are warning you that we are bombing the house.”

[cairamelcoffee]

Dr. Ghada Abu Eida, a doctor at the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, was working in the ER department when rescue crews carried in her daughter on a stretcher. Dr. Ghada was saving people injured in the Israeli air strikes on Jabalia Camp, unaware that her daughter was also targeted.

via

[chaiaurchaandni]

israel bombs vicinity of indonesian hospital in Gaza

just wanted to point out how after the baptist hospital massacre that killed HUNDREDS of Palestinians at once, israel faced a lot of outrage all over the world - as a response, now israel has stopped directly bombing hospitals but it regularly bombs the vicinity of several hospitals, and sometimes the courtyards (where displaced Palestinians find shelter, and where ambulances are either about to head out to bombed areas or bringing survivors/injured from bombed areas). also, instead of bombing the entire hopsital, it now bombs only a floor occasionally, in order to not garner outrage and slowly normalise the bombing of hospitals, while also doing considerable damage and killing Palestinian civilians/medical staff. bec of israeli bombing, the only cancer hospital in Gaza is no longer operational. israel also bombed a top floor of a children's hospital, and bombed ambulances that it guaranteed to allow to pass through rafah crossing.

[fedtothenight]

x

[ardate]

.

[coochiequeens]

A journalist job is to report the truth. Even when that conflicts with someone’s sense of identity

French associations SOS Homophobie and Mousse filed a complaint against journalist Dora Moutot for “public insults because of gender identity, and public provocation to hatred or violence against a group of people because of their gender identity.” The two associations released a joint statement on February 15, 2023, after Moutot said on TV show Quelle Époque (France 2) that Marie Cau, the first trans-identified male elected as mayor in France, was a “transfeminine man.”

The remark about Marie Cau’s male biological sex was made after journalist Léa Salamé asked Moutot “Is Marie Cau a woman to you?”

The complaint also accuses Moutot of “transphobia” for an Instagram post she made on August 25, 2022, where she described an individual called Hanneli Escurier as a “trans-identified woman.” Escurier was born with female anatomy but self-declares as male. Moutot was “reacting” to a text published by Escurier, in which the trans activist wrote “One day very soon, I think, trans people will go and smash TERFS ( Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist: expression which designates activists who exclude trans women of feminist struggles, Editor's note)That's how it's going to end (...) It's not a call for violence, just a public premonition about something that will become inevitable.”

Moutot is said to have created a crowdfunding for her legal costs against the complaint filed against her.

Recently, an opinion piece in French publication Marianne with several personalities - journalists, historians and doctors - protested the allegations against Moutot. According to the piece, published on February 27, there was relentless “outcry” on the internet, describing Moutot as a “violent, transphobic and anti-trans activist.”

The authors of the article continue: “In her remarks, no hatred, [there was] no desire to damage anyone. She describes what she sees. She talks about her perception, her reality. She repeats it several times: for her, a woman is a female. Faced with several men who revile her and an audience who boos her (scenes cut during editing), she unfolds her arguments calmly. She worries about the practical consequences of transgender ideology for women, for children, for society as a whole. She didn't come to stigmatize trans people, she came to defend women.”

The opinion piece further argues that people should have the right to disagree with Moutot’s remarks, but claims that the journalist is being accused of “wrongthink,” quoting the words attributed to Voltaire: “I don't agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for you to have the right to say it."

“With this complaint, for the first time in France… transidentitarian activists are seeking to put into practice their mantra (which was) limited to social networks: ‘Transphobia is not an opinion, it is a crime’.”

In 2022, Moutot teamed up with French feminist Marguerite Stern and formed the group Femelliste after both women have been subjected to years of harassment for their views on women’s rights. Moutot was talking about female sexuality on her Instagram account @TasJoui, when, in 2019, trans activists started “explaining to her that talking about clitorises was not inclusive of trans women,” according to their website.

The Femelliste website has been collecting and archiving evidence of the harassment women are being subjected to if they dare to talk about female issues. “FEMELLISTE was born out of the compelling desire to fight against harassment, violence and censorship of women referred to as ‘TERFs’.” Femelliste published their manifesto on January 9, 2023.

“The harassment, the insults, the threats and the cancel culture that we endure form a sprawling system,” says the Femelliste website. “For the past three years, we have been archiving what we experience. Downloading, filing and analyzing the thousands of screenshots.”

The Femelliste group warns that they are not the only ones to have been subjected to harassment for their views on women’s rights. “All over the world, other women who hold the same positions as us are also constantly harassed. Like us, they are referred to as TERFs - Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists. This term - used as an insult, and most of the time accompanied by threats - is a new way to disqualify women who oppose transgender ideology by affirming biological realities. In France, some associations and activists are calling for the exclusion of "TERFS" through the slogan "TERF out of our struggles".

[darkesttiimelines]

yall india's fascism and censorship is growing so fucking quickly its genuinely terrifying

[endimpunityday]

Violence against journalists, the integrity of elections, and the role of public leadership - Panel Discussions

The International Day to end Impunity against journalists 2023 seeks to raise awareness and sensitize public opinion and the international community on the main challenges faced by journalists and communicators in the exercise of their profession, and on the escalation of violence and repression against them, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, which to date is the region with the largest number of fatal attacks against journalists.

It also seeks to highlight and warn about attacks and restrictions on the press in the context of coverage of social protests; the activation of judicial mechanisms against journalists for reasons related to their journalistic work on matters of public interest; and the forced exile, which is increasingly one of the main options for dealing with repression in some countries in the region. These facts, as already mentioned, are inserted in a context of constant stigmatization and discrediting by public officials and leaders towards the press, so it is also intended to reflect on the role of these people, based on their public discourse and specific obligations. This edition of IDEI also wants to emphasize the situation of violence against journalists and media workers during election periods. In this sense, it seeks to reaffirm the commitments of the States and the responsibilities of the other actors involved to prevent and counteract the intolerance, discrimination and deliberate disinformation that permeates much of the debate in these contexts.

The objective is to give visibility to the role of a safe and free press in ensuring the integrity of elections and our democratic systems. Finally, the sessions will delve into the obligation of States to adopt effective measures to protect the independent press and strengthen institutional frameworks that combat violence and impunity, and promote media independence, sustainability and diversity.

[bmoreisapunkrocktown]

I remember an article I read a while back by a phone sex operator who was talking about sex work as a labor industry, and she was saying that one of the best and most freeing things about her job was the ability to hang up.

She said that she used to work at a hotel, and every night a man would call and masturbate over the phone. The more uncomfortable the front desk operator was, the more he did it. It was not only company policy that they couldn't end the call no matter what, but when reported to the police, they didn't do anything because it isn't illegal (apparently).

The difference between working at the hotel and working for the phone line was that 1) she could work from home and 2) that when a caller broke the rules, she could hang up. And she could block them so they didn't call again.

What constitutes a threat and what constitutes a crime are always things that are weighted against populations they're meant to be weighted against. Many years ago, someone was arrested for making fun of the police on Twitter. Those same police told someone being stalked and harassed through Twitter that there simply was no way to track individual accounts and they should just log off.

I think there's something to be said that saying the words "Deny, Defend, Depose, you're next" to an insurance sales rep can get you arrested for 'threats of mass homicide' or whatever with a threat of 15 years in prison

But when I was a manager in a fast food restaurant I've had customers throw food at me, demand for my personal phone number with an added threat of "Well I'll just have to FIND it", customers charging past the front counter to physically intimidate me and my coworkers, screaming and swearing, demands to know what time I get out of work, demands to know when my manager would be at work as a threat, people sitting in their car waiting for me to finish closing because they were angry at me, causing me to stay in the office watching the camera waiting for them to drive away...

But none of those incidents are arrest-able offenses, not one, any time I called the cops on any customer I would just hear excuses like " "there isn't anything illegal about calling a restaurant", that nothing physical happened and therefore there's nothing they could do, to call back and let them know if anything else happens

Idk, just think it's A TEENY TINY BIT ODD

Cop in the news goes "words have consequences" as if people don't berate and threaten fast food and retail workers every day

[notyourtoday]

[thethief1996]

I can't stop thinking about the news out of Palestine. Israel is sieging al Shifa hospital. Videos of people's limbs being severed off are haunting (graphic video tw). The hospital has ran out of fuel and 39 babies in incubators are fending for their lives by themselves, because Israel has stationed snipers around the hospital and is shooting all medical crew that walks into their sight.

First, the narrative was Israel would never bomb hospitals. Now, the hospitals are Hamas bases. Then, we respect journalists. Now, we have a fucking kill list of journalists because they are Hamas collaborators. First, we are not letting fuel in until the hostages are released. Now, we are not accepting the hostages back because that would stop our ground invasion and let Hamas win. And I could go on about every single lie they're making up. If you look up "Hamas rape" on google, the first link leads to Times of Israel saying Israel has found no forensic evidence of sexual violence, and only one eyewitness testimony out of 3.5k people attending the rave. If you Google "Hamas beheaded babies" the top links say they have no evidence for the claim besides word of mouth from extremist soldiers. Israeli extremists think about the ugliest goriest scene they can make out in their sick heads, tell that to a international journalist and they run away with it like it's gospel.

And children are being killed in the name of these lies. Thousands are being displaced in images that remind me of the pictures of Tantura 75 years ago, with their hands up so the tanks don't shoot them. Amputees are leaving the hospitals in wheelchairs hours after their surgeries because they are being shot at. Elders who survived the Nakba on 48 are having to walk towards Southern Gaza on foot (imagine walking from one end of your city to the other on foot), displaced again. People are cheering for the haunting images of white phosphorus bombs being dropped over Gaza. Gazan workers who were arrested in the West Bank are being thrust back into the bombings wearing numbered labels.

This is not normal. We are seeing the early stages of the settler colonial genocide of an indigenous population. Native leaders who have visited Gaza say its refugee camps look eerily like reservations. We can stop this. For the first time we are able to see wide scale accounts from the hands of the people suffering the genocide, and Israel is so scared of it they have cut all communications in Gaza.

This is our litmus test. I think we have never seen more clearly, with Palestine, Armenia, Congo and Sudan how colonialism has made our world a rotten place to live in.

The South African apartheid collapsed due to boycotts. We have to do everything in our power to stop Israel's hegemony. Even talking to a group of friends about Palestine changes the status quo. There's no world where we can live peacefully if Israel accomplishes their goals.

Keep yourself updated and share Palestinian voices. Muna El-Kurd said every tweet is like a treasure to them, because their voices are repressed on social media and even on this very app. Make it your action item to share something about the Palestinian plight everyday. Here are some resources:

Al Jazeera, Anadolu Agency, Mondoweiss

Boycott Divest Sanction Movement

Palestinian Youth Movement is organizing protests and direct action against weapons factories across the US

Mohammed El-Kurd (twitter / instagram)

Muhammad Shehada (twitter)

Motaz Azaiza (instagram) - reporting directly from Gaza.

Hind Khudary - reporting directly from Gaza. Her husband and daughter moved South to run from the tanks but she stayed behind to record the genocide. The least we can do is not let her calls fall on deaf ears.

You can participate in boycotts wherever you are in the world, through BDS guidelines. Don't be overwhelmed by gigantic boycott lists. BDS explicitly targets only a few brands which have bigger impact. You can stop consuming from as many brands as you want, though, and by all means feel free to give a 1 star review to McDonalds, Papa John, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Starbucks. Right now, they are focusing on boycotting the following:

Carrefour, HP, Puma, Sabra, Sodastream, Ahava cosmetics, Israeli fruits and vegetables

Push for a cultural boycott - pressure your favorite artist to speak out on Palestine and cancel any upcoming performances on occupied territory (Lorde cancelled her gig in Israel because of this. It works.)

If you can, participate in direct action or donate.

Palestine Action works to shut down Israeli weapons factories in the UK and USA, and have successfully shut down one of their firms in London.Some of the activists are going on trial and are calling for mobilizing on court.

Palestinian Youth Movement is organizing direct actions to stop the shipping of wars to Israel. Follow them.

Educate yourself. Read into Palestinian history and the occupation. You can't common sense people out of decades of propaganda. If your arguments crumble when a zionist brings up the "disengagement of Gaza", you have to learn more.

Read Decolonize Palestine. They have 15 minute reads that concisely explain the occupation (and its colonial roots) and debunk popular myths, including pinkwashing.

Read on Palestine. Here's an amazing masterpost.

Verso Book Club is giving out free books on Palestine (I personally downloaded Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe. If you still believe in the two states solution, this book by an Israeli professor debunks it).

Call your representatives. The Labour Party in the UK had an emergency meeting after several councilors threatened to resign if they didn't condemn Israeli war crimes. Calling to show your complaints works, even more if you live in a country that funds genocide.

FOR PEOPLE IN THE USA: USCPR has developed this toolkit for calls, here's a document that autosends emails to your representatives and here's a toolkit by Ceasefire in Gaza NOW!

FOR PEOPLE IN EUROPE: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace targeting the European Parliament and one specific for almost all countries in Europe, including Germany, Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Greece, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Austria, Belgium Romania and Ukraine

FOR PEOPLE IN THE UK: Friends of Al-Aqsa UK and Palestine Solidarity UK have made toolkits for calls and emails

FOR PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA: Here's a toolkit by Stand With Palestine

FOR PEOPLE IN CANADA: Here's a toolkit by Indepent Jewish Voices for Canada

Join a protest. Here's a constantly updating list of protests:

Global calendar

Another global calendar (go to the instragram of the organizers to confirm your protest)

USA calendar

Australia calendar

Feel free to add more.