Geneva: UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists in Gaza to obscure what she described as “the genocide,” making the ongoing conflict the most lethal for media workers.
According to Jordan News Agency, Khan, speaking in Geneva, emphasized that the killing and silencing of journalists is an attempt to cover up the alleged genocide, citing UN figures indicating at least 252 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began. She highlighted that this conflict has become the deadliest for journalists, with numbers continuing to rise as Israeli operations persist.
Khan further remarked that the number of journalists killed in Gaza surpasses those lost in World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, and the conflicts in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan combined. The independent expert, who is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but does not speak on its behalf, asserted that many journalists in Gaza were “targeted” due to their work uncovering atrocities and crimes.
She also condemned Israeli “smear campaigns,” accusing Israel of labeling journalists killed in its strikes as “supporters of terrorists or terrorists themselves” to delegitimize them. Khan stressed the need for states to intervene to prevent the silencing of all journalists in Gaza.