This is the latest installment of our press freedom round-up, recapping the latest attacks on journalists, their right to publish, and our right to know. Here’s the news for the week of December 14, 2024.
U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Journalist arrests surge in 2024
U.S. Press Freedom Tracker finds that in 2024, “journalists were arrested or detained by police at least 48 times, more than during the previous two years combined”. Since the Tracker begin cataloging press freedom violations in 2017, more arrests were made only in 2020 and 2021. Almost 90% of arrests made in 2024 took place around Israel-Gaza war protests, while nearly half of them was made by New York City police.
Israel kills three Palestinian journalists in 24 hours
An Israeli air strike has killed journalist Ahmed al-Louh in the strike on the Civil Defence post in the central Gaza camp. Al-Louh worked as a cameraman for Al Jazeera and other media outlets.
Al Jazeera reported that two more journalist were killed within the last 24 hours: Mohammed Balousha and Mohammed Jabr al-Qrinawi, who was killed alongside his wife and children in an Israeli air attack that targeted their home in Bureij refugee camp.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has denounced the killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza in the past week. CPJ’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg said that 95 journalists were killed in 2024, and that “Israel is responsible for the two thirds of those deaths”, while “the international community has failed in its obligations to hold Israel accountable for its actions”.
Reporters Without Borders has condemned “Israeli army’s mass assault on journalists in northern and central Gaza” calling it “a continuation of the war crimes committed by Israel”.
Two Kurdish journalists killed in a reportedly Turkish drone attack
Kurdish journalists Nazim Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin were killed in an alleged drone attack by Türkiye. They were covering the fighting between Ankara-backed militia and US-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, said International Federation of Journalists, which condemened the killings and called for a swift investigation.
Jesselyn Radack writes about the continued dangers for press freedom posed by the Espionage Act
In an op-ed for the Salon, Jesselyn Radack recounts threats to journalism and free speech posed by the Espionage Act, which will certainly continue to be used under Trump.
“(Trump’s) administration wielded the Espionage Act against FBI whistleblower Terry Albury, who revealed surveillance of journalists, religious and ethnic minorities and immigrant communities. Under Trump, the Justice Department also used this law to prosecute Air Force veteran Reality Winner, who disclosed Russia’s attempts at election interference. The Espionage Act’s most recent victim is Daniel Hale, a veteran of the Afghan war who exposed the brutally inaccurate targeting of drone strikes and the extent of unreported or under-reported civilian casualties.
“More troubling still, Trump expanded the Espionage Act’s use in charging WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for activities that can reasonably be described as ordinary journalistic practice.”