Lisbon, Sept. 1, 2025 (Lusa) - More than 200 media organisations from 50 countries, including the Lusa news agency and Público newspaper, are blocking front pages and interrupting broadcasts today, demanding an end to the murder of journalists in Gaza and access to the enclave.
Organised by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the campaign movement Avaaz and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the action is presented as the first "large-scale editorial protest" in modern history coordinated simultaneously by newsrooms on all continents.
"Printed newspapers will have entirely black covers with a striking message. TV and radio stations will interrupt their programmes with a series of statements. Online portals will black out their homepages or display banners in solidarity," the organisation said in a statement.
Lusa will run a photo of the war in Gaza as a headline on its online page throughout the day, with the words of RSF's director general: "At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by Israel's defence forces, there will soon be no one left to keep the world informed".
The number of journalists killed in Gaza has exceeded 210 since 7 October 2023, according to RSF figures, making this "the deadliest conflict for reporters in modern times".
The organisation points out that "Israel has prevented foreign journalists from entering Gaza for almost two years, leaving only Palestinian journalists to report under fire".
Speaking to Lusa, the information director of the Portuguese news agency said that it "could not remain indifferent and is joining this worldwide protest".
"As journalists, we cannot stand by and watch the deliberate or collateral murders of journalists who, facing all the risks and threats, systematic displacement, hunger and even death, bear witness and inform the world about what is happening in Gaza. In its war against this enclave, Israel is also waging war on journalism and the right to inform and be informed," says Luísa Meireles.
The agency has joined the initiative "for journalism, for the right to information, for freedom of expression, for international media access to Gaza" and "against the war", she said.
Contacted by Lusa, the director of Público newspaper, David Pontes, emphasised that it was "important to give visibility to the atrocious situation to which professional comrades in Gaza have been subjected".
"The eclipse of humanity in that territory must be reported urgently; otherwise, we won't be able to muster the strength to stop the terror experienced by Palestinian civilians. On our part, this is a very small gesture in the face of the heroic deaths of so many journalists, which must stop. Each of us has an obligation to do something to stop this," he told Lusa.
Quoted in the statement, RSF director general Thibaut Bruttin warns that "it's not just a war against Gaza, it's a war against journalism itself. Journalists are being killed, attacked and defamed. Without them, who's going to talk about hunger, who's going to denounce war crimes, who's going to expose genocides?" he asks.
Avaaz campaigns director Andrew Legon said that "Gaza is turning into a journalists' graveyard" because "Israel's far-right government is trying to complete the massacre in the dark, without the scrutiny of the press".
"If the last witnesses are silenced, the killings won't stop - they'll just stop being seen. That is why we are united today: We cannot and will not allow this to happen," he said.
For his part, the FIJ Secretary General recalls that the journalists who were killed "risked everything to tell the world the truth and paid with their lives. This war has deeply damaged the public's right to information. We demand justice and an international UN convention on the safety and independence of journalists," says Anthony Bellanger.
The most recent attacks against journalists in Gaza took place on 25 August, when Israeli forces bombed the al-Nasser medical complex - a well-known meeting place for reporters - killing five journalists. Two weeks earlier, another six journalists were killed in a single attack.
PD/ADB // ADB.
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