In early Aug a team of four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelance reporters were killed in a bombing by Israel. In the hours and days since we learned of the killing, we have also received considerable correspondence from members who have expressed their desire to see the CAJ issue a statement condemning the killings.
The CAJ’s position has always been, and always will be, that attacks on journalists anywhere in the world are attacks on journalism. Full stop.
Sunday’s deliberate attack was a devastating, appalling, and tragic loss of life. Once again, we join the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and other media organizations in condemning Israel’s killing of a team of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, and more than 190 others since Oct. 7, 2023. These acts are egregious breaches of humanitarian law and require independent investigations.
Being a journalist in Gaza, today, means bearing witness to a growing humanitarian catastrophe, which several human rights groups have deemed a genocide. The CPJ has reported that the past 22 months, since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack against Israel, has been the deadliest period for journalists since it began gathering data in 1992.
To put this unprecedented loss of life into perspective, Brown University’s Cost of War Project says that more journalists have been killed since October 7, 2023 than in the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined.
In November 2023, the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) stated its concerns about the scale of the deaths and threats to journalists working in Gaza. We have consistently stood with organizations like CPJ and RSF who continue to engage in critical advocacy and to provide frontline support to journalists working in the Gaza Strip.
We have signed statements from organizations like the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which has called for the Israeli government to take explicit steps to protect the lives of journalists covering the war in Gaza, in accordance with international law. We have also established an Emergency Support Fund to help Canadian journalists cover short-term expenses related to threats and crises caused by their work as journalists.
The Canadian Association of Journalists is the country’s largest professional organization that serves to advance the interests of journalists from coast to coast to coast. The CAJ’s primary roles are public-interest advocacy work and professional development for its members.
For further information: Brent Jolly, president, Canadian Association of Journalists, brent@caj.ca
