Gaza’s journalism world will never be the same

Palestinian journalist Abu Bakr Bashir covers a Japanese cultural event in Khan Yunis, Gaza, for Japan’s JIJI PRESS. (Photo: Courtesy of Abu Bakr Bashir)

London-based Palestinian journalist Abu Bakr Bashir moved to Gaza as a teenager during the optimistic era of the Oslo Peace Accords. But over years of reporting, he witnessed life in Gaza erode by wars and blockade. In a new piece for CPJ, Bashir recalls the pressures of reporting in Gaza amid Israeli military operations and Hamas restrictions, but also the knafeh-fueled camaraderie among Gaza’s embattled press corps.

Now, with more than 100 Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli military fire and Gaza’s reporting infrastructure all but demolished, Bashir looks back on the journalism world he left in 2019 and asks: “Will there be young men and women willing to go into journalism in Gaza? Who will tell Gaza’s story?”

-Two journalists harassed, assaulted, and detained during Flag March in Jerusalem
–Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war
–Full coverage of the war

A deadly week for journalists and their families in Sudan

A fighter holds up a gun backdropped by the minaret of a mosque and the sun. — A fighter holds up a weapon in Sudan in May 2024. (Photo: AFP)

Journalist Makawi Mohamed Ahmed, a reporter at the official state news agency of Sudan, and his brother Shamseddine Mohamed Ahmed were killed by the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during a Wednesday attack on the village of Wad Al-Noura, according to news reports.

On June 5, RSF soldiers attacked the village in Al Jazirah state, south of the capital, Khartoum, and deployed heavy artillery, which killed about 100 people.

A second journalist, Muawiya Abdel Razek, was shot and killed on Tuesday, along with three of his family members. Since the war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF in mid-April in Sudan, at least two additional journalists have been killed, and others have been beaten and harassed.

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Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

Learn more about Myat Thu Tan