Defending Rights & Dissent and 18 other press freedom and human rights organizations endorsed a call from 64 members of Congress asking the Biden Administration to urge Israel to allow independent access to Gaza for U.S. and international journalists, in the interest of transparency, accountability, and press freedom. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) led the congressional effort.
Read our letter to President Biden and Sec. of State Blinken here and below.
International media and press freedom groups have called on Israel to allow media into Gaza, but, as a press release from McGoverns office notes:
… foreign media remains largely prohibited from entering the region, except for a few controlled trips arranged by the Israeli military. This effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an overwhelming burden on local journalists who are documenting the war they are living through. Tragically, at least 130 journalists have lost their lives since the start of the war, and those who remain face conditions of extreme hardship and danger.
Read more about the Congressional letter and find out if your Representative signed on here.
In January, DRAD organized a vigil on Capitol Hill for slain Gazan journalists, and in August, we sent a letter signed by over 100 journalists, press outlets and press freedom groups to Secretary Blinken calling for a halt to US weapons to Israel because of the targeting of journalists in Gaza.
DRAD’s Gaza First Amendment Alert is a free biweekly update that covers the impact on US civil liberties stemming from the war in Gaza and across the Middle East. Subscribe here.
