World Press Freedom Day

“When attacks on the media are normalized, freedom itself begins to decay,” says Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In his message for World Press Freedom Day, Mr. Türk insists that Gaza has become a “deathtrap for the media”, with nearly 300 journalists killed since October 2023. The UN rights chief also underscores the “growing threats” to journalists around the world “who document horrific atrocities, expose corruption, and scrutinize business operations”.  Read the full story.

“They’re all going to kill us because of you!” the devastating cry one Gaza journalist will never forget from her 12-year-old daughter, shortly after receiving a telephone threat. In Gaza alone, nearly 300 reporters have been killed since Hamas-led terror attacks against Israel on 7 October 2023, according to the UN human rights office, OHCHR. And while foreign journalists continue to be barred from entering Gaza, local reporters have borne the responsibility of documenting the conflict, often at extreme personal cost. As part of events to mark World Press Freedom Day, UN-partner the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) brought Gaza journalists together to share their experiences in Geneva. Several spoke of targeted killings, threats against family members and the difficulty of finding somewhere to live. “I’m sorry but journalists cannot live with us,” one reporter remembered being told by neighbours, while another described how his father had delivered the same message, for fear of being...