The Union remembers its dead

From Gaza to Yemen, the world’s frontlines have become execution grounds for truth-tellers, writes Dr John Jiggens.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2 It was the United Nations International Day Against Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. Members and friends of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) assembled in Brisbane Reddacliff Place They are holding a vigil to mourn and remember colleagues killed in the line of duty while reporting on last year’s wars.

Speaking on duty, Kasun UbayasiriFederal co-chair of MEAA’s National Media Division, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) noted that this year 122 journalists and media workers worldwide were killed while reporting in war zones or on dangerous missions in the past twelve months.

Surprisingly, 61 of these 122 people were Palestinian journalists killed in Israel’s war in occupied Gaza. 31 more media workers were killed in one day in Israel’s air strike targeting a newspaper building in Yemen. Three more people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a settlement where journalists were located in Lebanon.

Ultimately, Israeli forces were responsible for 95 of last year’s 122 deaths. The war in Sudan claimed the lives of 13 more journalists; this was the largest number in Africa. Another 14 media deaths spread across many other global conflict zones.

As with the 31 Yemeni deaths, many media workers were deliberately targeted at work or at home.

Maher Mughrabieditor and senior journalist AgeThe photographer spoke about his friend’s death Fatma HassonaThe Palestinian photojournalist is the protagonist of this event. Sepideh Persiandocumentary, Put Your Spirit in Your Hand and WalkHe was killed as a result of Israel’s missile attack on Gaza. He was 25 years old.

In April, days after the photojournalist and ten members of her family were killed in an Israeli airstrike, Western media reported that Fatma declared HE “If I die, I want a noisy death.”.

Mughrabi said:

In Western and English-language renderings of the Palestinian experience of occupation, apartheid, and now genocide, much is lost in translation.

There can be no doubt that the two missiles that entered the Hassuna family’s second-floor apartment in Gaza City at around 1 a.m. on the morning of April 16 made a deafening sound. But that’s not what Fatma meant out loud. His friend from Gaza, the poet Batul Abu Akhaleen, made a different translation: “If I have to die, I want a death that resonates. I don’t want to be a news item or the number of a group. I want a death to be heard all over the world.”

Fatma wanted her death to leave an indelible mark that would change things. Anyone who has used the death of a loved one as the impetus for a public appeal, a new charity, or a campaign to change the law knows the feeling. Please turn my heartbreaking loss into something positive.

The extraordinary photographs Fatma captured with her camera not only recorded carnage and death, but also showed how people could still walk and work in humanity’s worst environment.

“I’m trying to find some life in this world, in this death.” he told Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi.

“Every second you walk on the street, you walk with your soul in your hands.” He added, naming the documentary that Persian made about him. This film was shown at Cannes in May. Fatima was killed the day she was invited to the premiere. Festival organizers stated that this young woman’s life force seemed like a miracle.

Mughrabi continued:

So what power does his death have? Fatma didn’t want to be a number in a group. However, the answer to this question is the same for him and for many journalists.

“I became afraid of the moment when my brother’s blood would reach me and stain me,” Fatma wrote. And if I die, will all my wishes die with me, he asked?

The blood reached Fatima Hassuna in April. But if his death doesn’t resonate, it will be our responsibility to bear the stain.

After the commemoration ceremony for our colleagues, we wrote our names and left flowers on the large banner with the names of all the dead journalists.

MEAA’s initiative to pay tribute to our colleagues was admirable. Israel’s attack on a Yemeni newspaper and the extraordinary number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza, often along with their families, show that Israel views journalists covering its wars as legitimate targets. But I was disappointed to find that I was one of the few journalists who recorded this momentous event.

Israel’s war on Gaza has been the deadliest conflict ever for journalists. In August 2025, Al Jazeera forecast It was a staggering number of more than 270 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in Israel’s war against Gaza.

According to research from Brown University War Costs According to the project, more journalists have been killed since the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, than in any war since the US Civil War, including World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the post-9/11 wars in the Middle East.

Australia’s mainstream media remains largely silent on Israel’s targeting of Palestinian journalists and the extraordinary numbers of our colleagues being killed.

Chris Hedges, one of the giants of contemporary journalism, was in Australia recently. Edward Said memorial lecture On behalf of the Adelaide Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA). Taking advantage of his presence in Australia, Hedges’ sponsors arranged for him to give a speech at the National Press Club (NPC) in Canberra. Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists. A date has been set for Monday, October 20. Hedges’ speech highlighted the unprecedented targeting of journalists in Gaza and promised a significant response.

But suddenly, three weeks before Hedges’ speech, the Press Club canceled his speech in order to balance their schedules. Apparently, anonymous individuals were concerned that NPC’s coverage of Israel and Gaza was becoming “unbalanced.” behind Antoinette LattoufAfter ‘s expulsion from ABC, rumors spread that the powerful Israeli lobby intervened. The cancellation of Hedges’ speech proving his accusation confirmed the NPC’s betrayal of Palestinian journalists.

Hedges’ supporters organized another platform. Interview with David MarrABC’s anchor Late Night Live program. Marr, a former landlord Media MonitoringHe disgraced himself by berating Hedges for collaborating with AFOPA and attempting to educate one of the world’s greatest journalists for his alleged sins against the ABC journalism style book, namely bipartisanship.

The key point of their disagreement emerged during the argument. Israel Defense Forces‘The allegation that there was an assassination attempt on a Palestinian journalist was denied’ Shireen Abu Akleh. Marr defended both sides, a fundamental doctrine of ABC journalism.

“Now whether we want it or not” Marr told Hedges: “As journalists, we have to report on the excuses put forward by organizations like the IDF, right? We have to report on their statements. That’s our job.”

“NO,” Opposed Chris Hedges: “Our duty is to tell the truth”

Although Israel has banned Western journalists from entering Gaza to cover the war, the only journalists reporting from the war zone are Palestinians, and these journalists are targeted and murdered on a large scale. Safe from the horrors of war and ensconced in comfortable hotels in Jerusalem, their Western counterparts receive background briefings from the IDF and write their reports.

They repeat Israeli lies that they know are lies, Chris Hedges says:

“They discredit the work of my colleagues in Gaza by reinforcing Israel’s lies.”

A genocide that the Australian mainstream media refuses to name is happening before our eyes. While Palestinian journalists covering the war are being killed on an industrial scale, Australian journalists who have been left out of the battlefield claim to be covering both sides, the truths they cannot see and the lies they have been told.