By David Robie
Last Saturday, 16 August 2025, I spoke at this Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) rally in the wake of the shocking targeted assassination of six journalists — four of them working for the Al Jazeera network — and another person in Gaza City.
That horrendous and brutal murder with an air strike on a media tent close to al-Shifa hospital on August 10 has reverberated around the world with outrage and condemnation.
The much loved Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Anas al-Sharif — who had been threatened for months by the Israeli military — was among the victims.
- READ MORE: NZ media workers call for ‘decisive action’ by Luxon over Gaza journalists
- NZ media industry open letter to Prime Minister Luxon full text
- Other media freedom reports
However, since then two more Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza and today we honour all those journalists who have been risking their lives reporting the truth day by day — and who have become martyrs and honoured around the world.
Although global media freedom groups have conflicting death toll numbers, it is generally accepted that more than 270 journalists and media workers have been killed – many of them targeted by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), even killing their families as well.
This death toll of Gazan journalists is higher than the combined deaths of journalists covering the following:
- The American Civil War
- First World War
- Second World War
- Korean War
- Vietnam War
- Cambodian War
- Yugoslav War
- Afghan War; and the
- Ongoing Ukraine War
The combined death toll of Gazan journalists is greater than all these wars together. Let that sink in. This is shocking and shameful!
Why these atrocities?
Why are the Israelis doing this along with all their other atrocities in this horrendous genocide, which rather than describing it as a “war” it is really continuous and relentless waves of massacres?
Very simply, the answer is because they can get away with it. Gaza is a massive crime scene and the Israeli military are systematically killing the witnesses with impunity.
According to investigative journalist Richard Sanders, of Double Down News, the Israelis are simply being allowed to do this.
“Because of the way it is reported in the West, in the way that politicians react to it in the West, it becomes normalised,” he says.
Full text of the independent #NZ #media fraternity’s open letter today to PM Christopher Luxon demanding that the govt take strong action in defending Palestinian journalists in #Gaza. #APMN #PacificMediaWatch @palestine @OnlinePalEng @PalestineAusNZ https://t.co/guBnrVZ94g pic.twitter.com/UYNKW1pnlq
— David Robie (@DavidRobie) August 28, 2025
For example, politicians talking about a question of proportionality, is it justified to kill five journalists when you are only targeting one. Instead of condemning every killing outright.
When Anas al-Sharif was murdered, his entire crew was also wiped out ahead of the Israeli invasion of Gaza City.
Removing the witnesses. It is an Israeli strategy. Kill and silence the witnesses.
Disturbing reports
Disturbing reports have emerged over the past two weeks about the existence of an IDF military unit tasked with smearing and targeting journalists in Gaza.
This so-called “legitimisation cell” was created in October 2023 at the start of the genocide.
Its purpose is to produce fake documents and evidence to discredit the journalists and claim they are legitimate military targets to justify their killings after they are dead.
This disinformation cell has played the role of a public relations body meant to declassify and produce counter-narratives when media criticism of Israel is heightened.
This information has subsequently been shared with media outlets and “also passed regularly to the Americans through direct channels” and is regularly published uncritically in Western media.
This means the smearing information is regularly picked up by New Zealand media through its syndication services and republished without question.
This is shameful because news editors know that they are dealing with an Israeli government with a history of lying and disinformation; a government that is on trial with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide; and a prime minister wanted on an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant to answer charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel recently allocated an extra US$150 million for its hasbara programme budget in a vain attempt to win hearts and minds. Hasbara is a Hebrew word for “explanation” and is used to describe Israel’s public diplomacy and communications strategy. Critics regard it as a sophisticated propaganda strategy.
And now the latest indictment is that the United Nations has officially declared an Israeli-made famine in Gaza, saying more than half a million Palestinians are facing catastrophic famine conditions, which include starvation, destitution and death.
In spite of the relentless bad news, there was a brief spot of good news this week after my frequent criticism for the past 22 months of the New Zealand media silence.
Aotearoa New Zealand joined 26 other countries to sign a statement by the Media Freedom Coalition calling on Israel to allow “immediate and independent” foreign media access to Gaza, and to ensure all journalists are protected.
For those who watched
I would like to end with a quote by Ahmad Ibsais from his State of Siege substack commentary entitled “A message for those who watched.”
“To every newsroom executive, every polished anchor, every culture critic who found ways to make Gaza disappear from your content calendar: you are not just complicit.
“You are instruments of this genocide. Your euphemisms made the bullets easier to fire. Your editorial guidelines stripped the blood from every massacre.
“You made slaughter palatable for donors and advertisers and liberal sensibilities.
“You chose to be cowards. You chose to serve power. You chose to dehumanize us with headlines and silence and sanitised grief.”
Have a spine! Palestine will be free. Kia Ora and thank you.
This was a speech by Pacific Media Watch convenor Dr David Robie at the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa in Te Komititanga Square, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, on 23 August 2025. Two days later, the Israeli military assassinated six more journalists in two separate incidents — a total of 13 journalists and media workers killed in just over two weeks — and New Zealand media industry representatives sent a letter of protest to New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon appealing for decisive support for the Gazan journalists.
- Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, along with freelance journalist Mohammad Al-Khalidi and freelance cameraman Momen Aliwa, who were targeted and killed in, or as a result of, an August 10 airstrike on their tent in Gaza City.
- Correspondents Hussam al-Masri, Hatem Khaled, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Mohammad Salama, Ahmed Abu Azi and Moaz Abu Taha, all killed in a strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on August 25.
- Journalist and academic Hassan Douhan, killed in Khan Younis on August 25.
