Over 100 journalists from around the world call for “immediate and uncensored” coverage of the war in Gaza.
From Sky News, the signatories called on Israel and Hamas to allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza to report independently on the ongoing war in the Strip, something they have been prevented from doing since the war began in October 2023.
The petition is a Freedom To Report initiative launched by award-winning photographer Andre Lyon. Signatories include Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford, renowned British journalist Mehdi Hassan, CNN’s chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, and Clarissa Ward, as well as renowned war photographer Don McCullin.
The petition stresses that if the warring parties ignore this request, they will use any legal means, independently, collectively, or in coordination with human rights activists, to force media professionals to enter without consent.
The journalists in the petition point out that Gaza is not the only place where the war is taking place, but rather a model of media suppression and press restrictions.
The Freedom To Report initiative, while praising the courage of journalists and reporters in the war zones, has announced that since the start of the conflict in Gaza in October 2023, nearly 200 journalists, mostly Palestinians, have lost their lives in Israeli attacks on the strip, making the Israel-Hamas war “the deadliest conflict on record for the press.”