If Israel can not provide evidence that the buildings which contained the seats of media outlets and were destroyed by recent airstrikes were used by Hamas for military purposes, it means that Israeli Defence Forces are targeting media to prevent coverage of developments on the ground, Middle East and North Africa Representative at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Ignacio Miguel Delgado Culebras, told N1.

Culebras said that the situation for journalists covering developments in the Middle East, especially in the Gaza strip, is “very dire.”

“We have witnessed since the beginning of the Israeli airstrikes the bombing of three buildings that were hosting at least 18 media outlets,” he said, describing it as “as loss for journalism.”

This means there are fewer media outlets available for covering developments on the ground and that many journalists have lost their equipment as they were not told to evacuate timely and can thus not continue to do their job properly, he explained.

“Yesterday we documented the first journalist who has been killed,” he said, referring to Yusef Abu Hussein, a reporter of Al-Aqsa radio, explaining that his house was hit by a missile.

“So far, the Israeli Defence Forces are saying that these buildings were used by Hamas for military purposes. However, we haven’t seen any evidence that proves that assertion. So that’s what we would like Israel to provide if they have it, and if it’s true,” he said.

“If it’s not, this means that they are targeting media outlets to prevent them from covering developments on the ground,” he added.

Culebras said that that press freedom is deteriorating across the world, noting that the CPJ last year documented “a record number of journalists in jail” – 274.

“We are witnessing an increasing number of journalists being arrested for fake news, anti-state charges. This year so far we have witnessed six journalists being killed for doing their job,” he said.
More about the difficulties journalists in the Middle East are facing at the moment, as well as the state of media freedom across the world, can be heard in the full interview linked above.