Our weekly roundup of press freedom news, highlighting the latest attacks on journalists, their right to publish, and our right to know. Here’s the news for the week of May 16.
Courage joins coalition calling on Columbia University to cease its investigations into student journalists
Courage has joined with the Student Press Law Center and 18 other journalism and free speech groups to express concern over the Columbia & Barnard “appalling treatment” of student journalists.
The coalition’s letter strongly calls on Columbia to cease any investigations against student journalists for covering protests on campus, expunge any and all student disciplinary record references to the protests for the student journalists, and guarantee protections for student journalists.
More journalists killed in Israeli airstrikes that deliberately targeted them
Israeli warplanes struck the homes of the four journalists, resulting in their deaths along with members of their families, reports The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA). An airstrike targeted the home of journalists Khaled Abu Saif and Noor Qandeel in Deir al-Balah, killing them, and photojournalist Abdel Aziz Al-Hajjar was killed in an airstrike on his home, while the body of freelance cameraman Abdel Rahman Tawfiq Al-Abadleh was recovered in the town of Al-Qarara two days after he had gone missing.
Earlier this week, Middle East Monitor has reported the death of journalist Ahmed Anwar Al-Helu, killed in an Israeli airstrike on the northwestern part of Khan Yunis. Al-Helu’s death has come hours after an anchor for Al-Aqsa Voice Radio, Hassan Samour, was killed along with 11 members of his family.