Journalists have a duty to cut through rhetoric and inform the public about Israel’s widespread crimes against humanity in Gaza, Uganda journalist.
By Zynab Muusa, Update : 20.11.2023
KAMPALA, Uganda -Journalists have been urged to explain to their audiences, what led to what is happening in Gaza today. The call was made by Uganda’s Pan African Muslim Journalist Association director Hamza Kyeyune at a meeting today in Ankara, where he met officials from Türkiye’s state Aid Agency TİKA, including the External Relations and Partnerships director Uğur Tanyeli. They discussed matters of common interest on enhancing professional collaboration for media development and strengthening common prosperity.
Tanyeli reiterated the agency’s support for capacity and institutional building in the fields of education, vocational training among others. “Enhancing the capacity of journalists, and helping them to exercise their profession more safely through trainings, like the concluded War journalism training, to better prepare them for dealing with risky situations, is among our activities, we are available to work with those who foster similar aspirations,” he said. He expressed aptness to collaborate with PAMOJA on media training, capacity building and tech bubble in liaison with Büşra Bağdat, the agency’s in charge for trainings.
Hamza noted that just like other developing countries, media in the country is largely presented in traditional forms of mass communication, including newspapers, magazines, television, and radio, and now the Internet. He added that the media remains largely influenced by the colonial masters who are biased on the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
“A number of media outlets are not doing enough to help the public understand the history of Palestinian suffering, the asymmetric death toll for the past 75 years of occupation and the apartheid imposed by Israel on Gaza to maintain its domination and oppression over the enclave,” he said.
He added that many journalists are unable to explain what led to what is happening today, and are reluctant to cut through rhetoric and misinformation by Western mainstream media which clearly omits Israel’s widespread grave crimes against humanity.
“Civilian deaths have exponentially increased in Gaza, but the blatant unequal level of empathy shown to Israeli victims is in sharp contrast to the indiscriminate killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians by Israel forces, isn’t this shocking! While the Israelis cannot be asked whether they condemn their government for the atrocities they have committed, Palestinians have been asked quite often to condemn Hamas, pure double standards” he said.
Hamas is designated as a “terror” group by the UK, United States and European Union although some countries in Europe like Türkiye openly disagree.
Hamza also noted that many journalists are influenced by the language used by the Western main stream media, which uses words like massacre only when referring to Hamas, and only describe Israelis as being murdered by Hamas fighters.
From Istanbul to South Africa, to London and beyond, masses are rallying against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, which evokes memories of the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in 1947, when Zionist paramilitaries destroyed more than 500 Palestinian villages and towns, murdered more than 15,000 Palestinians and forced more than 750,000 from their land.
