Written by Michael Thervil
This is not a free speech argument, but this is however an argument centered around the arresting, silencing, and even the killing of journalists around the world. This is something that needs to stop. The reason why we are taking this stance at VEDA Magazine is because journalism is more than simply producing content for the joyous consumption of readers; journalism is one of many tools used to create and maintain a historical record of past, current, and forecasted future and possible outcomes of events.
As of today, a 45-year-old NBC Palestinian Freelance Journalist Mirvat Al-Azzeh who was hired by NBC around October 21 of this year was covering the successful military operation carried by Hamas against Israel was arrested and jailed by Israeli’s. What was the charge? The charge or the suspicion in this case was “inciting terror and identifying with a terrorist organization”. The Jerusalem Magistrate court declared her covering of the military operation of Hamas as “inciting and glorifying the horrible acts committed against civilians”.
Before her arrest, NBC “cut ties”, essentially firing her because of the Israeli’s being suspicious of her “inciting terror and identifying with a terrorist organization”; but they had no issue using her video footage of the executed Hamas military operation nor her written skills as a journalist to profit off of in their daily news coverage the Hamas-Israeli war. According to NBC:
“Before we recently retained Marwat Azza for services as a freelance producer, we were not aware of her personal social media activity that provided the basis for the Israeli investigation. We understand the material under investigation is not related to any services she provided to NBC news. A review of her limited work for NBC news did not uncover any issues.”
The root of the problem here is that Mirvat Al-Azzeh a Palestinian, had enough courage to cover both the Hamas military operation against Israel and highlight the current atrocity that has been going against the people of Palestine for decades. But Mirvat Al-Azzeh is not the only journalist that has come under fire. To date, there have been over 50 journalists and media personnel killed with most of them being Palestinian. Also included in that number include journalists from Israel and Lebanon. There are also 3 journalists missing, and 18 journalists arrested all in the name of censorship while covering the Hamas-Israeli war. Other problematic issues against journalists include threats, assaults, and cyberattacks.
Outside of the Hamas-Israeli War and the Israeli crimes against Palestinians, journalists simply covering stories or conducting investigations have been outright killed. Journalists like Daniel Pearl (2002) who was kidnapped and killed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for reporting on the infamous “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid. Then there’s investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya who covered the Chechnya human rights abuses and corruption. She was shot at her apartment building on October 7, 2006. Investigative reporter Javier Valdez Cárdenas was killed in Mexico while reporting on the various crimes of the Sinaloa Cartel in 2017. In 2016 political reporter Pavel Sheremet was killed covering various types of political corruption in Ukraine.
But the issue of killing journalists isn’t limited to it occurring outside of America. Within the borders of America. Journalist Zachary Stoner was killed in 2018 in Chicago after covering an event. In 2018, the “Capital Gazette” journalists: Gerald Fischman, Rebecca Smith, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, and Wendi Winters all were killed by lone gunmen in their offices. In 2021, National Public Radio (NPR) political journalist Aviva Okeson-Haberman was killed in her apartment. Investigative journalist Jeff German was stabbed and killed in 2022 for covering mismanagement in the Clark County’s Public Administrator Robert Telles office. Most recently in America, Dylan Lyons was killed on February 22, 2023 was shot and killed the same day he was covering an earlier homicide. The list of journalists that have been either threatened, assaulted, and/or killed grows longer each day.
We are bringing this to your attention because journalists are an important instrument of truth and transparency (or at least they should be – as there are some “bad apples”). Journalists bring not only the news on the international and local levels to you, but they are the first to bring you relevant information to keep you in the know concerning past, current, and future events.
To protect us is to respect us.
Comments