Over 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza, with foreign media largely blocked from entering. In a rare joint statement, more than 35 press freedom organisations, including RSF, WAN-IFRA and CPJ, are calling for urgent international action, including the suspension of EU-Israel trade agreements until protections for journalists and media access are upheld.

As international attention shifts, Gaza is now also facing famine. New evidence suggests hunger is being used as a weapon of war, while those documenting it are systematically silenced. With Palestinian journalists risking and losing their lives, and Western media under fire for biased or inadequate coverage, the stakes for independent reporting have never been higher.

This urgent discussion brings together frontline reporters and press freedom advocates to examine the deliberate targeting of journalists, the impact of media blackouts during wartime, and the consequences of reporting, or failing to report, on war crimes in real time.

Wael al-Dahdouh, Palestinian journalist and Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief, has faced unimaginable personal loss while reporting. During the Gaza war, his wife, seven-year-old daughter, 16-year-old son, and nine other relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp on 25 October 2023. On 15 December, al-Dahdouh and his cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa were targeted by an Israeli missile while covering the Haifa School airstrike; he was injured, and Abu Daqqa killed. Despite this, he returned to reporting. In January 2024, his son Hamza was killed. His courage earned him the 2024 John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award.

Ramita Navai, an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. She is known for her fearless reporting from conflict zones and authoritarian regimes, including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan. Her recent film, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, exposed the devastating impact of Israel’s bombardment on Gaza’s health system and the targeting of medical workers. A former foreign correspondent for Channel 4’s Unreported World and PBS Frontline, she is also the author of the award-winning book City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran.

Jon Williams, Executive Director of the Rory Peck Trust, which supports the safety, welfare, and working lives of freelance journalists globally. He is also a board member of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), where he chairs the Journalists Assistance Committee. A three-time Emmy award-winning editor, Jon was previously Managing Director of RTÉ News, leading its digital transformation and establishing it as Ireland’s most trusted news source. He served as Foreign Editor at the BBC—directing coverage of the Arab Spring and the war in Afghanistan—and as Managing Editor at ABC News, overseeing global newsgathering and winning multiple awards for international reporting.

Dr Iain Overton is the Executive Director of the London-based conflict research charity Action on Armed Violence. A former BBC and ITN journalist, he has reported from over two dozen war zones and won multiple journalism awards, including a Peabody and two Amnesty Media Awards. Overton holds a PhD from the University of Portsmouth for his war reporting. In 2023 he taught a storytelling course at the Islamic University of Gaza to students living with disabilities there. All of his students are now refugees. Aya Kafafi, who took part in the course, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July 2024, along with her father, sister, and several of her nieces and nephews.