Last week, on May 11, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot in the head by Israeli Defence Forces in the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s Bennett and Gantz tried to shift the blame to Palestinian militants, but the camera evidence and AFP witness accounts of the IDF’s blame is solid. To salt the wounds, the IDF went on to attack Shireen’s funeral convoy and beat the living shit out of mourners. Because that’s what oppressors do.
This isn’t the first time the IDF has targetted – hunted – journalists reporting on apartheid Israel’s genocidal occupation. Turkish state media Anadolu Agency account for 15 killed journalists since 1992, while Qatari Al Jazeera and the Palestinian government account for some ~50 journalists targetted and murdered since 2000. I guess definitions of “journalist” vary…
Journalism gets a bad rep these days. Truth be told, it’s always been popular to hate on journalists. Because they tell the stories that Power doesn’t want told. Anything else is advertisement. And though the line between journalist and private citizen has been blurred with the advent of social media, the profession, in my mind, has become more invaluable than ever. Not less so. A journalist takes on the inhuman task of trying to set aside bias and get to roots that, sometimes, absolutely no one is comfortable exploring.
Good, brave, defiant journalism is a fundamental of not just democracy, but any kind of society. Good journalism keeps liars honest, crooks accountable, and despots despairing. Which is why journalism is such a dangerous profession. Regardless if you’re plying your trade in occupied Palestine, war-torn Ukraine, or quasi-dictatorial Philippines. Not because you work at high altitudes or face down landmines for a living, but because Power will want to have you silenced. Which is probably also why a vast majority of journalist murders go unresolved. Because Power is always happy when journalists die.
When Power wants you dead, you’re doing something right with your life.
I’m biased. I think journalism can be one of the noblest labours upon this planet. When done right. The details of what “right” means also varies, but whenever one speaks truth to Power and is hated for it, hunted for it, it is inalienably right.
I mourn not just for Shireen and her peers of later day secular martyrs, but for this our current circumstances; where one of the highest awards one can receive for one of the noblest labours in history is to be murdered by Power.
/Sebastian Lindberg 17/5-2022
WastedWords 