A FORMER BBC news reporter who quit the cooperation over its reporting on Gaza has criticised journalists across the industry for showing a lack of solidarity with Palestinian correspondents killed by Israel.
Karishma Patel – who worked for the BBC for almost five years but quit in October – said the industry had “failed” Palestinian reporters with too many journalists “toeing the line” and not speaking up about Israel “decimating the foundations” of the profession.
The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs has said Israel’s war on Gaza is now the deadliest ever for media workers, according to its Costs of War project.
The United States-based think tank’s report released last week has stated that Israeli forces have killed 232 journalists and media workers since the war in the enclave began following the October ,7 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
The figures demonstrate that more journalists have been killed in the conflict than in both world wars, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia and the US war in Afghanistan combined, the report said.
However, Patel said many journalists at mainstream news outlets have “chosen the path of least resistance” and opted not to speak out in support of their Palestinian colleagues.
“They’re toeing the line, in the hopes of retaining a stable income and steady career progression,” she said.
“This profession, however, demands editorial bravery and speaking truth to power. It is, by its nature, about troubling power relations and exposing injustice, sometimes at cost to yourself.”
That came after Hossam Shabat, of Al Jazeera Mubasher, and Mohammed Mansour, from Palestine Today, were killed by Israeli airstrikes within hours of each other on March 24.
In December, Palestinian journalist Iman Al-Shanti was also killed along with her husband and three children in an Israeli strike.
In a separate attack that month, five Palestinian journalists were killed in an airstrike outside a hospital in a refugee camp. The journalists had been working for the local Quds News Network.
Patel told The National how she saw an “outpour” of emotion over Ukrainians being displaced and killed by Russia in BBC newsrooms, but “nothing of the sort” over Palestinians.
She said if this many Ukrainian journalists had been killed, there would be “wall-to-wall” reporting on it, but this has not been the case with Palestinian journalists killed by Israel.
She went on: “The double standard in how Palestinian journalists are treated is clear. It is, sadly, unsurprising.
“If over 200 Ukrainian journalists had been targeted and killed by Russia, some with their entire families, we would see public statements from every major news organisation condemning it and calling it an assault - not just on the journalists themselves, but on the very foundations of democracy.
“We would also see wall to wall reporting on how many journalists had been killed, with humanising coverage of individuals. Mohammad Mansour, Hossam Shabat and Eman Shanti would be household names across the country.
“Every system of accountability, including journalism itself, has failed Palestinian journalists.”
The National reported this week on how Middle East expert Richard McNeil-Willson, based at Edinburgh University, believes journalists are not speaking out about their colleagues being killed in Palestine because of a widespread belief Palestinian life “does not matter much as other life”.
He said there is a general acceptance across a variety of professions that Palestinians are “less worthy”, resulting in a lack of international sympathy.
“Because of the way in which Palestinians are framed as being less worthy and linked to terrorism, international sympathy is just not there,” he said.
