New York: The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog, issued a statement in support of South Africa’s urgent request to the International Court of Justice to facilitate Israel’s unhindered access to Gaza.
In a joint statement, nine human rights and media freedom organizations said Israel has failed to comply with the ICJ’s January 26 order to “take effective measures to prevent destruction and to ensure the preservation of evidence related to alleged acts under Art. Article II and III of the Genocide Convention “
South Africa argued on May 16 that the court should issue these interim measures to ensure Israel withholds evidence in accordance with the January order.
“Despite the diligent efforts of Palestinian journalists who continue to report on the daily struggle for survival, Israeli censorship practices undermine comprehensive, continuous and independent documentation of events in Gaza and significantly hinder future accountability efforts,” the signatories said.
The statement stated that journalists, independent human rights investigators, fact-finding missions and the International Criminal Court (Gaza) are still unable to enter Gaza, preventing the effective preservation and storage of evidence of war crimes.
CPJ: “Israel’s total ban on foreign journalists from Gaza and increasing restrictions on media outlets such as Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, and the Palestinian Press Corps, make it important and essential for the South African ICJ to contact the media without hindrance. Courtesy of Advocate and Communications Director Guillen Kaiser.
“Any censorship in Gaza creates false and sanitized propaganda and information that can affect public accountability and people’s lives.”
Article 19: “Israel’s continued attacks on journalists violate international human rights and humanitarian law on freedom of expression and the public’s right to information.” Barbora Bukowska, Senior Director of Law and Policy. “This is against the ICJ’s January order to withhold evidence, which continues the conflict and hampers accountability efforts. Therefore, it is important that the ICJ is clear this time that Israel’s actions must be stopped.”
Since the January 26 ICJ injunction against Israel, CPJ has documented the killing of 19 Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza.
Since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, at least 105 journalists and media workers have been killed, including 100 Palestinians.
