Pressure, intimidation, and censorship: Israeli journalists have faced growing repression in the past year
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza, pressure on Israeli journalists and media outlets has increased. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this climate of intimidation and calls on the Israeli authorities to stop obstructing the work of journalists covering the war.
Journalist Roee Idan was one of the many victims of Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killed with his daughter shortly after documenting Hamas’ assault for his media outlet Ynet. Since that day, nearly a year ago, the Israeli government has been waging a devastating war in Gaza and the intimidation and censorship of Israeli media outlets has increased. Israeli journalists striving to cover the conflict now work under heavy pressure. Like all journalists outside Gaza, they cannot enter the blockaded Palestinian enclave unless they accompany the Israeli army and remain under strict surveillance.
Any media coverage deemed critical of Netanyahu’s government, or even sympathetic to the Palestinian victims, has become risky territory. In October 2023 alone, at least fifteen journalists were attacked or threatened by the Israeli security forces or individual citizens. These repressive acts, fuelled by nationwide anger after the assault on 7 October, have reinforced the climate of self-censorship among media professionals in Israel, which was further exacerbated by a draconian regulation dating to November 2023 that bans international media outlets considered a threat to national security.
“During this year of unprecedented violence against the media in Gaza, journalism has also taken a hit in Israel itself. Israeli journalists attempting to report on the war have faced increasing pressure and intimidation, and the Netanyahu government has overseen policies and practices that amount to outright censorship. This alarming trend is severely restricting the right of Israelis to access full information on the war, and will result in long-term damage to press freedom in Israel if not immediately reversed. Combined with the decimation of journalism in Gaza through the killing of more than 130 journalists, as well as the continued blockade on foreign media from entering Gaza, Israeli authorities are also in turn obstructing the global public's right to information on the war.”
Repression, threats, and no coverage of Gaza
Journalist Israel Frey was forced to evacuate his home in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, on 14 October, after a mob from Israel’s far-right threatened him outside his house, accusing him of showing sympathy for the victims of Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip in a video he had appeared in. A few days earlier, on 13 October, journalists from the British international news channel BBC Arabic — Muhannad Tutunji, Haitham Abudiab, and their team — were arrested, assaulted, and held at gunpoint by Israeli police in Tel Aviv. On 5 June, an unidentified assailant destroyed the glass entrance to the editorial office of the daily Haaretz, considered one of the few media outlets covering the impact of the war on people in Gaza. Two Haaretz journalists were assaulted by police officers on 2 September while covering demonstrations demanding an agreement for the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
Policies of censorship: a severe new law and blockade
The Israeli government’s draconian regulation passed in November 2023 — which became a new law in April 2024 — was used to ban Al-Jazeera’s channel in Israel, following defamatory accusations of “propaganda” and “terrorism” by Israeli politicians and members of its judiciary. The media outlet's office in Ramallah, in the occupied territories, was also stormed in September 2024 by the Israeli armed forces and forced to close for a renewable period of 45 days. According to the journalists who contacted RSF, the ban on the Qatari channel was seen as a wider threat to media outlets accused of pro-Palestinian coverage. At the same time, the Israeli blockade on Gaza continues to keep international journalists from reporting the facts on this war-torn territory.
