01/09/2025
| Flickering Lights: Journalism in Genocide
The intention has always been to alarm, intimidate, and erase. The media, as an institution capable of arming people with knowledge and power, has proved itself time and time again as essential in uncovering injustices and fanning the flames of change.
The absence of media reporting on the genocide being committed by Israel, however, is robbing the world of empathy for the Palestinian experience, thereby enabling the mass killing of a people. In a crisis for the truth, a blinded world struggles to admit, recognize, and relate to the most horrible of horrors, especially when all noise is suppressed before reaching official channels. Against this backdrop of silence, missiles continue to rain on children, while Israel easily gets away with killings through simple denial and deflection of blame.
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Layout by Cheska Pajares
๐๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ฅ๐๐๐ | Flickering Lights: Journalism in Genocide
It was early in January this year when videos of a veteran journalist made rounds on social media. Al Jazeeraโs Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh held back his tears as he led the communal prayer for his eldest son, Hamza, who lay dead on the sidewalk, covered by a white burial shroud. Hamza, a journalist like his father, was with his colleagues seeking interviews with displaced Palestinians when their vehicle was targeted and bombed by Israeli airstrikes. Hamza is now among the 37,431 Palestinians killed since the start of Israelโs genocide in Gaza as of June 20, 2024. Even worse, attacks against journalists like him and his father are believed to be premeditated by the occupying power, patterned to deter coverage and outrage over Israelโs war crimes against the Palestinian people.
The present media landscape surrounding the genocide of Palestinians is inadequate, distorted, and exceptionally dangerous. Whether such lack is caused by censorship or falsification, the absence of principled reporting on Gaza blinds people into complacency and, in turn, ignorance.
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The extreme measures taken by Israel to suppress media coverage in Gaza have manifested in strategic and precedent ways. The playbook is as simple as it is barbaric: to suppress all means by which the world witnesses the tragedies that Israel leaves in its wake.
The most straightforward way to hide the truth is to hunt down its tellers. Hamza Al-Dahdouh is only one out of the 108 Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli airstrikes since October 7. Such rampant murder of journalists constituted over 75% of journalist killings worldwide in 2023. Reporters Without Borders has expressed alarm with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over these figures due to what they believe are deliberate and targeted attacks, while journalists from international media organizations are blocked by the Israeli government from venturing into Gaza outside of tightly regulated trips led by the Israeli military.
The intention has always been to alarm, intimidate, and erase. The media, as an institution capable of arming people with knowledge and power, has proved itself time and time again as essential in uncovering injustices and fanning the flames of change.
The absence of media reporting on the genocide being committed by Israel, however, is robbing the world of empathy for the Palestinian experience, thereby enabling the mass killing of a people. In a crisis for the truth, a blinded world struggles to admit, recognize, and relate to the most horrible of horrors, especially when all noise is suppressed before reaching official channels. Against this backdrop of silence, missiles continue to rain on children, while Israel easily gets away with killings through simple denial and deflection of blame.
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The role of a journalist is intrinsically linked to the role of a truth bearer. As a vessel of public service, it is the media's task to undertake a responsibility in pursuance of the truth, with journalists carrying out the weight of keeping the flame of this torch lit. In the exploration of the Palestinian plight, however, foreign coverage of the genocide has misrepresented the voices and denied Palestinians of their birthright to simply exist, all under the guise of objective portrayal.
A common sentiment echoed around newsrooms is fairness in oneโs reportage, yet the disparity between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli ideologies paints a trajectory where privilege overtakes the amplification of unfiltered stories. This sentiment leaves a hanging question in the air; who is fairness for? Is fairness for the wealthy men in business attire holding briefcases? Is it for the international leaders whose palms directly dictate the fate of a bruised nation? Within a political setting where the aggressor can control the flow of the publicโs response, the circumstances resulting from Israelโs oppressive regime already leave little to no room for the Palestinians to tell their story. To ask for โfairnessโ given pre-existing disparities is to reinforce the cycle of oppression present in the status quo.
The stark contrast between Israel and Palestineโs portrayals in foreign media also skews the social reality both parties live in. In the framing of biased outlets from the United States and United Kingdom, Palestinians โdieโ but are never โkilledโ; Israel โretaliatesโ but never โattacksโ; and the mindless killing of civilians is a product of โwarโ and not โgenocide.โ
Major papers such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have released op-eds falsely degrading the Middle East with Islamophobic and racist tropes, the latter even depicting Iran as a โparasitoid waspโ and Hamas as a โtrap-door spider.โ These all contribute to the landmines of prejudiced reporting that has since justified and rebranded the ongoing genocide.
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The Philippines currently stands between the path to radicalization and the clutches of imperialism. The Palestinian cause, while divisive to a community preconditioned to deliberately link themselves to imperialistic dogma, should be a pivotal talking point in the realm of our socio-political reality.
โFrom Palestine to the Philippines, Stop the US War Machineโ is the battlecry that unites both countries in light of the atrocities committed in both settings. With both the Philippines and Palestine facing similar oppression in their colonial pasts, there lies a potent responsibility for Filipinos to not only empathize but work towards tackling down the common factor that hinders the quest towards liberation. Our shared experience with tyrannical administrations, the violent repression of journalists, and restless cases of murder by our political leaders further demonstrate the linked nature between the Philippine and Palestinian experiences. Oppression is a shared experience around the world, and combating it should be approached in a similar manner.
Despite the bleak backdrop of the situation, all is not lost in the continued fight for social justice, compassion, and most importantly, the truth. The current circumstances may appear controlled and chaotic, yet with just one flick of a pen, the status quo can change granted that the whole world continues to take collective action.
Hopelessness will only show its wretched face once every journalist has disappeared from the face of the earth and once language has ceased to exist. Since both scenarios are not likely to happen for now, the role of the media in reporting on everything that is happening should persist. Journalism has its responsibility to uphold its creed of being the critical eye and the vehement opposition to the shackles of public interest. Present active media outlets, major or minor, should strengthen the coverage that gives voice to the minority, the oppressed, and the subjugated. Journalists should strive to push harder, extend their influence, and be more conniving watchdogs for present and future events.
When the lights flicker, it is every journalistโs role to fill the gaps and redirect the spotlight to those suppressed and censored. Though journalism still suffers from hegemonies and power dynamics, these should never negate oneโs will to strive to cover what is stifled and do what is just. A scope will never be too large or too far because beyond borders, humans are still connected through universal experiences. Empathy should never be transactional, even for the media and especially for the press. Only when journalists realize their role in this current genocide can Palestinians hope to turn the tides and tell their story and heritage across rivers and seas, echoing the tenets of freedom.
๐ผ๏ธ: Francesca Elise Pajares
