Fifty-three dead. This is how the statistics look about journalists who have already died in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas.
– Never before have so many journalists been killed in such a short time. Most recently yesterday when a television team from Beirut, a young woman with a photographer, was hit by a rocket after a live broadcast in southern Lebanon, says foreign correspondent Rolf Porseryd on TV4.
He was one of the speakers earlier today when the slain journalists were recognized at a demonstration on Mynttorget in Stockholm. Behind the arrangement were Reporters Without Borders, the Publicists’ Club, Swedish PEN and the Journalists’ Association.
Rolf Porseryd, like several speakers, highlighted the importance of transparency.
– We journalists must be given access to all crises and hotbeds of war in order to document and report with our own eyes what is happening on the ground. The parties involved must not control the flow of information.
The risks for journalists working in conflict areas have increased. In September, TV4’s team in Ukraine was targeted by a drone attack, despite wearing equipment with clear PRESS lettering.
The attack is being investigated as a war crime. Reporters Without Borders is trying to investigate whether journalists have also been made specific targets in the war in the Middle East.
“A lot of false information is being spread”
The Publishers Association, which gathers Sweden’s publicists, was represented by chairman Viveka Hansson, program director at TV4. The publishers support the demand made by eleven international media companies against Egypt and Israel that journalists be allowed into Gaza.
Viveka Hansson points out that increased reporting on the spot can also contribute to countering misinformation and manipulative campaigns.
– There is a lot of false information being spread about how the journalist corps monitors the development of events, the information is usually used to claim or prove that the media have their own political agendas or motivations.
– It is a dangerous narrative. It distorts reality, increases polarization and breeds more mistrust and hatred. We should all fight those forces.
Other speakers were Erik Larsson, RSF, Ulrika Hyllert, Journalistförbundet, Kerstin Almegård, Swedish PEN and James Savage and Sveriges Tidskrifter