Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Over 200 Media Outlets Demand Opening Gaza to Foreign Journalists, Protecting Palestinian Reporters

Update on 12 June 2025: The appeal has gathered 204 signatures and the list below has been updated.

For more than 20 months, Israeli authorities have barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip. During the same period, the Israeli army killed nearly 200 Palestinian journalists in the blockaded territory, including at least 45 slain for their work.

Palestinian journalists who continue reporting — the only witnesses on the ground — are facing unbearable conditions, including forced displacement, famine, and constant threats to their lives.

This collective appeal, launched by RSF and CPJ, brings together prominent news outlets from every continent demanding the right to send correspondents into Gaza to report alongside Palestinian journalists.

“The media blockade imposed on Gaza, combined with the massacre of nearly 200 journalists by the Israeli army, is enabling the total destruction and erasure of the blockaded territory.

Israeli authorities are banning foreign journalists from entering and ruthlessly asserting their control over information. This is a methodical attempt to silence the facts, suppress the truth, and isolate the Palestinian press and population.

We call on governments, international institutions and heads of state to end their complicit silence, enforce the immediate opening of Gaza to foreign media, and uphold a principle that is frequently trampled: under international humanitarian law, killing a journalist is a war crime.

This principle has been violated far too often and must now be enforced.

Thibaut Bruttin

RSF Director General

The media blockade on Gaza persists despite repeated calls from RSF to guarantee foreign journalists independent access to the Strip, and legal actions such as the Foreign Press Association’s (FPA) petition to the Israeli Supreme Court.

Palestinian journalists, meanwhile, are trapped, displaced, starved, defamed and targeted due to their work.

Those who have survived this unprecedented massacre of journalists now find themselves without shelter, equipment, medical care or even food, according to a CPJ report. They face the risk of being killed at any moment.

To end the enduring impunity that allows these crimes to continue, RSF has repeatedly referred cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC), urging it to investigate alleged war crimes committed against journalists in Gaza by the Israeli army.

RSF also provides aid to Palestinian journalists on the ground — particularly in Gaza — through partnerships with local organisations such as ARIJ (Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism).

This partnership provides Palestinian journalists with psychological and professional support, ensuring the continued publication of high-quality reporting despite the blockade and the risks.

Through this cooperation, RSF reaffirms its commitment to defending independent, rigorous journalism — even under the most extreme conditions.

*SOURCE: Reporters Without Borders. Go to ORIGINAL: https://rsf.org/en/gaza-rsf-cpj-and-over-130-media-outlets-call-opening-strip-foreign-journalists-and-protecting 2025 Human Wrongs Watch