Around 60 international organizations defending the press urged on Monday the European Union to suspend the partnership agreement it signed with the Israeli entity due to all its violations of media freedom and the targeting of journalists in an unprecedented manner since the start of the genocide on the Gaza Strip, on Oct. 7, 2023.
According to the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa), the signatory organizations noted in their letter that, since the outbreak of the genocide on the Gaza Strip, the government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a series of measures to limit freedom of the media, which has practically led to the imposition of a censorship system.
The letter comes prior to a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday, Aug. 29.
The organizations called EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis to suspend the association agreement, which specifically addresses trade with the Israeli entity, a
nd to impose targeted sanctions on those responsible for human rights violations.
The organizations stated in their letter that more than 100 Palestinian journalists and three Lebanese journalists were murdered in the ongoing genocide, making it the deadliest period for journalism in decades.
It indicated the practical prevention of foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip and the arbitrary arrests of media workers, with at least 49 of them arrested, stressing that the cumulative effect of these violations creates the conditions for a media vacuum and opens the way for media deception.
According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), at least 161 journalists have been murdered, 186 injured, and 51 others arrested since the beginning of the unprecedented genocide on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Oct. 7, 2023.
Source: Qatar News Agency