“Gaza has become the Deadliest Conflict Ever for Journalists” UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan – Press Briefing

15 September 2025

Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, speaks at a press conference at UN Geneva on 15 September 2025.

Transcript:

Gaza has become the deadliest conflict ever for journalists.

More journalists have been killed in Gaza than both world wars, the Vietnam War, wars in Yugoslavia, and the war in Afghanistan combined, according to one research institute.

As Francesca mentioned, the U.N. number right now is 252, but that is, of course, likely to go up because every week we hear news of more killings.

In August alone, nine journalists were killed in three horrific bloody incidents, as you may remember.

Many of these 252 journalists have been targeted, by which we mean deliberately picked out and killed because of the work that they are doing to expose the atrocities, the crimes, the genocide on the ground.

Let me spend one minute on the strategy that Israel seems to have developed, where they will first de-legitimize and discredit a journalist.

Smear campaigns are started, accusing the journalists of being terrorist supporters or terrorists themselves. And then they are killed.

So it is not just killing journalists, but the attempt is being very clearly made here to kill the story, because journalists, local journalists in Gaza today, are carrying the brunt of that killing spree, because they are the ones, only ones who are there.

Gaza, what is happening in Gaza is extremely unusual in that I cannot recall another situation where a member state of the United Nations has denied access to independent international media for a conflict, for atrocities, for the unfolding of genocide, and now genocide actually happening over almost three years at this stage.

We have not seen in any other country a situation like that happening where international media are being denied independent access.

The burden then falls on the local journalists who are being picked out, as I mentioned, and killed, labeled as terrorists and killed.

Journalism is not terrorism.

Journalism is not a crime.

Journalists are civilians under international humanitarian law and therefore protected like other civilians.

However, journalists, because of the nature of their work, have to go where the fighting is. They cannot flee away from the fighting, and they are being then deliberately picked out and killed. International media have been denied access. Al Jazeera has been actually banned from even operating in the West Bank or in Israel itself.

What we see here, therefore, is as Francesca Albanese, as you know, has written about the anatomy of genocide and the economy of genocide.

And I would say that the story of the way in which journalists are being killed, silenced, murdered, in fact, is the cover-up of genocide, because these local journalists are the main source for news right now from the ground up.

And if they can be stopped, if the information that is leaking out to the world can be stopped somehow, the Israeli Defense Forces believe that they can continue to do what they are doing with impunity.

And that actually is the critical word here, impunity.

Israel has never been held accountable.

Israel has never allowed independent investigation of a single killing of a journalist ever in the Palestinian-occupied territories.

We have cases going back 20 years that have not ever been investigated internationally.

And that, of course, has created this environment of permissibility in which the Israeli Defense Forces can do what they want to destroy those who are daring to expose the truth on the ground.

And that, to me, is a big tragedy, certainly for the journalists themselves, certainly for the genocide in Gaza. But I think for media freedom around the world, a terrible precedent here is being made. And those countries that champion media freedom, those who speak about independent media, I hold them responsible at this stage. They must bring pressure to bear on Israel.

To allow independent investigation of the killings, to allow international access to international independent media, the very presence of international independent media will give some degree of protection to local journalists who are out there working alone, and, of course, to stop the killing itself.

Without journalists, we know that this story will never be complete.

The information would be very difficult to get.

Already, local journalists are suffering the same conditions like the rest of the population, looking for food, water, shelter.

They’ve had family members killed. And yet, they continue. Many of them continue very bravely to report. But how long can that go on happening?

In fact, in my last press release, the title was States Must Stop Israel Before All Journalists in Gaza Are Silenced. And that is what I fear.

I hope very much that you will speak up for those in your own community, journalists in your own professional community, speak up loud and clear that this must come to an end and Israel must be held accountable.

Thank you.

To learn more about Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and the Question of Palestine, click here to visit the dedicated webpage.