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Writes Lovemore Chazingwa
The international media fraternity has once again been plunged into darkness following the murder of at least 20 journalists by Israeli forces in the massacres bombarding the Gaza Strip.
Some have described the situation as “a total disregard for the right to profession.”
According to Al Jazeera news outlets, the Gaza Government media office says, at least 49 media workers, including 20 journalists in press gear, deployed in the thick of things in the war-torn Gaza Strip have been killed so far. Chances of more fatalities are a despicable reality juxtaposing purported democracy against ravaging brutality.
The murders, arguably, signify a calculated nauseating move to deprive the international community of information at a time when the world needs to keep abreast of developments taking place in the Middle East.
It is these men and women of voice and visions who perform the duty to inform and educate the nations, aggregating into opinion shaping policy for world affairs. Exposing the wrongs, in like fashion, explaining the rights spinning off the war, described by some quarters as a genocide is a call to duty for these information merchants.
Targeting and killing people in such a gruesome manner without any modicum of respect for the sanctity of human life, let alone the nobility of journalism, is a stack imposition of a big brother mentality.
A circulating protest letter gathering international journalists’ signatures, mainly working for American news outlets, urging Western media to adjust its reportage of the war pulls the rag under Western media feet.
Influential media group, Al Jazeera said almost a thousand journalists have so far appended signatures to the letter condemning Western media coverage of the Israel attacks.
The scathing letter pulls Western media to apply terms like ‘ethnic cleansing’ in relation to the reportage on the intentions by Israel in this catastrophe. It goes on to plead with the Western newsrooms to end the use of dehumanizing terms in their coverage, saying: “Vilifying Arabs and not calling Israel an apartheid state is a double standard.”
The letter accuses Western media of dismissing Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim views as unreliable which it finds unpalatable.
The stinging contents of the letter suggest that Western media settle for ‘genocide’ in its description of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
The blistering letter exudes a magnetic effect on journalists working for global giants Guardian, LA Times, Reuters, and Washington Post, according to a Sunday morning program, Inside Story, co-presented by Pacinthe Mattar from Toronto.