Apparently Israel Didn’t Get the Memo: Journalism Is Not a Crime
Five more journalists killed in Gaza, a press crackdown in Hong Kong, and daily assaults on truth-tellers from Trump to Putin — the global war on journalism is accelerating.
The killing of journalists is not collateral damage. It is a war crime. Yet today in southern Gaza, five more journalists were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a hospital. This comes just weeks after Israel’s attacks claimed the lives of four Al Jazeera staff and two freelancers in Gaza. One media veteran described that earlier day as the most deadly for journalists in recent memory.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has been blunt: Israel’s targeted killings of media workers in Gaza continue “while the world watches and fails to act firmly on the most horrific attacks the press has ever faced.” CPJ added that “the murders must end now” and that perpetrators can no longer be allowed to act with impunity.
The message should be clear: journalism is not a crime—but targeting journalists most certainly is a war crime.
And yet, Gaza is not the only place where journalism is under attack. Here in Ukraine, almost 100 of local and foreign media workers have been killed - and countless more injured, kidnapped, or tortured by Russian forces. Each new name added to that list underscores Moscow’s determination to silence the truth about its aggression.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, press freedom continues its steady collapse. Just this week, authorities denied a visa renewal to a Bloomberg reporter, Rebecca Choong Wilkins - who has worked for the news outlet in Hong Kong for the past six years, most recently as a senior reporter on the Asia government and economy team. The authorities did not give any reason for the denial of her visa renewal, and it is another reminder of how far the former British territory has fallen. “Regrettably, this decision and the lack of explanation reinforces widespread concerns about the erosion of press freedom in Hong Kong, which is protected under the Basic Law and the Bill of Rights,” the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong said in a statement. Reporters Without Borders warns that self-censorship is now pervasive in a place that once ranked among the freest in the world.
Even in the United States—the self-styled leader of the free world—the rot has spread. Donald Trump’s near-daily assaults on journalists, branding them “fake news,” are nothing less than intolerable. Whether shouted from the Oval Office or from Air Force One, such attacks corrode democracy at its core.
As my friend Jon Lee Anderson of The Atlantic once told me: we cannot live in a world where the leader of the free world calls the media fake. He argues—rightly—that journalists must become more activist, more unwilling to sit down when vilified, threatened, or targeted.
I agree. Enough is enough. Whether in Gaza, Kyiv, Hong Kong, or Washington, the assault on truth-tellers is an assault on all of us. Journalism is not a crime. Silencing it is.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the Israeli strikes that killed five journalists in Nasser hospital in southern Gaza and has called for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its continued unlawful attacks on the press. Journalist Hussam Al-Masri, a Reuters contractor; Al Jazeera camera operator Mohammed Salama; Mariam Abu Dagga, freelance photojournalist with Independent Arabia and the Associated Press; freelance journalist Ahmed Abu Aziz, who contributes to Quds Feed; and freelance video journalist Moaz Abu Taha, were among at least 20 people killed in two Israeli strikes on the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on Monday morning. Al-Masri was killed in the first strike, while the others were killed while covering the aftermath of the previous Israeli strike. Journalist Jamal Baddah from Palestine Today TV, photographer Hatem Khaled, a Reuters contractor, and Mohammed Fayeq, a freelance photographer, were injured in the attack. CPJ is investigating a possible fifth case of a journalist killed. The killings followed Israel’s killing in Gaza on August 10 of four Al Jazeera staff — correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal — and two freelancers, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammad al-Khaldi. One commentator described the day as the most deadly for journalists in recent history. “Israel killed at least five journalists in Nasser Hospital on Monday morning. Israel’s broadcasted killing of journalists in Gaza continues while the world watches and fails to act firmly on the most horrific attacks the press has ever faced in recent history,” said CPJ’s Regional Director Sara Qudah. “These murders must end now. The perpetrators must no longer be allowed to act with impunity.” Before this strike, CPJ documented 192 journalists killed during the war, 184 of them were Palestinians in Gaza. With Monday’s strike, the toll rises to 196 journalists killed, 188 of them Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza. Israel’s Israel Hayom said “A security source told the newspaper Israel Hayom today [Monday] that the reason for the attack on the Khan Yunis hospital was the presence of a camera on the hospital roof, which Hamas members were using to document IDF forces. The forces received permission to neutralize the camera, but the incident escalated into a wider incident.” The Reuters live video feed from the hospital, which was operated by Al-Masri, suddenly shut down at the moment of the initial strike, the wire said.
There’s a steady erosion of press freedom in Hong Kong, long-time resident and commentator Barry D. Wood says. In an article on his website called “Hong Kong Media: Sliding Towards Irrelevance,” - which followed the denial of a visa renewal to a Hong Kong-based Bloomberg reporter - the writer says it’s a formidable task to transform free-media into government mouthpieces as has happened to government-owned radio RTHK. “Aside from some high-profile cases, such as the imprisonment of Apple News publisher Jimmy Lai, the city’s authorities are pursuing a gradualist approach to transformation,” he writes. “But Hong Kong’s government is caught in an unavoidable dilemma: having to comply with Beijing’s dictates while preserving remnants of the freedoms that make Hong Kong attractive. Determined to remain a global financial center, Hong Kong authorities can ill afford complete press censorship that could trigger a renewed exodus from the territory….Given the near total crackdown on opposition, few in Hong Kong are willing to criticize the erosion of press freedom. Bryan Curtis, the former Bloomberg radio host and RTHK presenter, laments, ‘There’s no civil society left in Hong Kong.’ Wood cites figures indicating a steady fall of Hong Kong in press freedom indices. Press freedom has fallen precipitously and is near the bottom in the latest Reporters Without Borders ranking, to 140 out of 180 territories surveyed. By contrast in 2002 Hong Kong was ranked as the fourteenth most free. China in 2025 is ranked 178. Mainland China’s position should come as no surprise. President Xi Jinping makes no secret of how Chinese journalists should operate, Wood points out. “The Hong Kong government’s gradualist approach on media transformation is likely to continue. Could that eventually mean the mainland’s great internet firewall reaching into Hong Kong with Google, Meta and other social media being banned? Could RTHK’s English language service be closed? All of these possibilities are now on the table — but if they come to pass, that would mean press freedom in the territory being finally extinguished.”
“Israel’s broadcasted killing of journalists in Gaza continues while the world watches and fails to act firmly on the most horrific attacks the press has ever faced in recent history. These murders must end now. The perpetrators must no longer be allowed to act with impunity” - CPJ’s Regional Director Sara Qudah.
France has summoned the American ambassador to Paris after the diplomat, Charles Kushner, wrote a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron alleging the country did not do enough to combat antisemitism. France's foreign ministry issued a statement Sunday announcing it had summoned Kushner to appear Monday at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and that his allegations “are unacceptable.” The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott on Sunday evening said it stood by Kushner's comments, adding: "Ambassador Kushner is our U.S. government representative in France and is doing a great job advancing our national interests in that role.” The summoning of the ambassador is a formal and public notice of displeasure. Kushner, a real-estate developer, is the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The French foreign ministry, in its statement, said “France firmly rejects these allegations” from Kushner and that French authorities have “fully mobilized” to combat a rise in antisemitic acts since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, deeming the acts “intolerable.” In the letter, released late on Sunday, Kushner writes that “public statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence and endanger Jewish life in France.” Kushner urges Macron “to act decisively: enforce hate-crime laws without exception, ensure the safety of Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses ... and abandon steps that give legitimacy to Hamas and its allies.”Kushner’s allegations violate international law and the obligation not to interfere with the internal affairs of another country, the French ministry said, and, “They also fall short of the quality of the transatlantic partnership between France and the United States and of the trust that must prevail between allies.” The dustup follows Macron's rejection this past week of accusations from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that France's intention to recognize a Palestinian state is fueling antisemitism. France is home to the largest Jewish population in Europe, with an estimated 500,000 Jews, the third-largest Jewish population in the world after Israel and the United States. That’s approximately 1% of the national population - ABC News
A colonial-era bridge in Myanmar that was once the world’s tallest railway trestle has been destroyed during fighting in the years-long conflict. A civil war has consumed Myanmar since a 2021 coup deposed the civilian government, with the military battling myriad pro-democracy guerrilla groups and ethnic armed organisations. Representatives from the ruling military junta and anti-coup armed groups have blamed each other for the destruction of the landmark Gokteik bridge on Sunday. In a video statement, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun claimed rebel factions, including the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and people’s defence forces groups had “bombed and destroyed” the bridge. A separate statement by the junta said the bridge had been “exploded with mines”. A TNLA spokesperson rejected this and accused the junta of bombing the bridge. “[The] Myanmar army tried to bomb our bases ... this morning by using drones. They bombed our troops, but their bomb also hit Gokteik bridge,” TNLA spokesperson Lway Yay Oo said. In recent weeks, clashes have erupted between junta forces and TNLA fighters in the nearby towns of Nawnghkio and Kyaukme – though the junta claimed to have recaptured Nawnghkio in July - The Guardian
Russia’s war economy has created a new middle class in the country’s industrial heartlands. That’s because of huge payments being offered for military service: one advert offers 8m rubles (£74,000) for the first year of military service – more than 10 times the region’s average wage of 712,883 rubles (£6,592) last year. This includes hefty sign-on bonuses, extra payments for those with children and other perks like priority nursery places, discounted mortgages and tax breaks. Military families are receiving big cheques while men are on the frontlines, many of them facing death. Blue-collar workers’ wages have also surged in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. While money is a paltry way to make up for the death of a loved one, there are some Russians on the home front who do not want the war to end. It comes as Donald Trump and European leaders try to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, seemingly with little success. Running out of patience with Moscow’s tricks and bombardments, Volodymyr Zelensky warned: “They don’t want to end this war.” While the comment was aimed at Vladimir Putin, Russians lifted out of poverty as a result of the conflict may also feel apprehensive. For many of the new middle class, they cannot afford peace - Telegraph
Flight attendants at the German flag carrier Lufthansa are not holding their punches when it comes to a damning assessment of the airline’s new flagship First Class suites that are a cornerstone of Lufthansa’s push to reinvigorate its status as a premium international carrier. In a letter obtained by the German-language aviation publication AeroTelegraph, the union that represents Lufthansa crew members has made it very clear they are unhappy with the finished product. The new First Class suites, which form part of Lufthansa’s so-called ‘Allegris’ cabin, are currently installed on just 10 of the airline’s long-haul aircraft, although the airline intends to roll out this design across its premium fleet. The immediate design flaw with this idea was clearly lost on Lufthansa, but the flight attendant union is more than willing to point out its shortcomings in the leaked letter. “Couples rarely have the same sleep rhythms or movie preferences,” the letter explains. “Instead of an exclusive feel-good atmosphere, there is more of a feeling of tightness and compulsion.” The union concludes that the much-hyped Suite Plus leaves passengers with “no trace of premium experience.” Perhaps the biggest annoyance amongst flight attendants, however, is Lufthansa’s decision to slash cabin crew staffing in the new First Class suite. Rather than having two crew members, Allegris First Class cabins will only have one flight attendant. In the past, one flight attendant would be dedicated to working in the galley, prepping meals, and taking care of the needs of the pilots, while the second crew member would work the aisle. This is how Lufthansa introduced Allegris as crew members got used to the new cabin, but now one flight attendant will have to balance their time, managing the galley and pilot requests, as well as serving passengers. The union fears this will have a detrimental effect on the passenger experience, and it couldn’t come at a worse time, as passengers get their heads around the new in-flight product. It seems that Lufthansa plans to keep two First Class-trained flight attendants on its Airbus A350s, but one of those crew members would be primarily working in Business Class but would be able to dive into First Class if things get too hectic. Clearly, the union is angling for Lufthansa to reverse course on the staffing cuts, although any change to the hard product is unlikely to materialize. After all, this is a seat that has been in development for years, and Lufthansa is committed to rolling out the design, not only on its own aircraft but also that of sister airline SWISS - PYOK
A crew member working on the Netflix hit series Emily in Paris died on Thursday while filming scenes for its fifth season in Venice, Italian media reported. La Repubblica identified the man as 47-year-old Diego Borella, an assistant director on the show. He reportedly collapsed in front of colleagues at Hotel Danieli around 7 p.m. local time as preparations were underway for a scene. Despite immediate efforts by the show’s medical staff and paramedics, he was pronounced dead at the scene. “We are deeply saddened to confirm the sudden passing of a member of the Emily in Paris production family,” Paramount Television Studios, which produces the show for Netflix, said in a statement to the BBC. Filming of the romantic comedy was temporarily suspended following Borella’s death. The series, starring Lily Collins as American marketing executive Emily Cooper, debuted in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic and has since become one of Netflix’s most popular shows. In its fourth season, released in 2024, the storyline shifted to Rome. The fifth season, which Borella had been working on, is due to air later this year. The ensemble cast also includes Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Ashley Park, Lucas Bravo, and Lucien Laviscount. — BBC
The journals….
