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by bawolff 343 days ago
As much as there are barriers to reporters here, it seems less than most other conflicts. Its not like journalists have unrestricted access to the Ukraine/Russia front line. Access to other conflicts like Sudan or Myanmar are also very restricted in practise.
1 comments
NomDePlum 343 days ago
That doesn't appear to be correct. How have you reached that conclusion?

Israel has not granted access to journalists to report independently since October 2023.

There has been very limited escorted trips with external journalists but all tightly supervised by the IDF.

Journalists already in Gaza have been killed regularly and there are credible accusations that many are deliberately targeted by the IDF.

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bawolff 342 days ago
> Israel has not granted access to journalists to report independently since October 2023.

Has Russia granted access by independent journalists to russian occupied Ukraine in that time period? As far as i know the answer is no.

And even on the Ukraine side there has been significant restrictions

E.g. a quote from https://theintercept.com/2023/06/22/ukraine-war-journalists-...

“The Ukrainian government has made it virtually impossible for journalists to do real front line reportage.”

Maybe its hard to say which one is worse, but they seem to be at least in the same neighbourhood

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NomDePlum 342 days ago
If we define “worse” as higher journalist deaths, zero press freedom, no access, and active targeting, then Gaza is clearly worse for journalists right now.

Ukraine/Russia conflict is obviously extremely dangerous but it allows far more media access, transparency, and foreign presence.

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bawolff 342 days ago
> zero press freedom

According to the world press freedom index, Israel has the third highest press freedom of all middle eastern countries (Qatar and Cyprus are a bit higher, everyone else in the middle east is lower in most cases much lower).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index#Rank...

I'm not saying its a paradise for reporters. There are clearly issues. But saying "zero press freedom" is a massive overstatement.

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NomDePlum 341 days ago
It's not an overstatement. If external journalists aren't allowed into Gaza on their own terms then it is a fact.

How you can have a sentence that includes the word "paradise" in it when referring to what's happening in Gaza is beyond me.

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