Latest news with #ForeignPressAssociation
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israel has made journalists 'fair game' as targets in Gaza
"Control of information by shooting the messenger is now the Israeli agenda" Quotable Foreign Press Association President Ian Williams discusses Israel's recent murder of several Al Jazeera staff in Gaza and how it justifies its attacks on journalists. Video Duration 02 minutes 03 seconds 02:03 Video Duration 00 minutes 56 seconds 00:56 Video Duration 01 minutes 25 seconds 01:25 Video Duration 01 minutes 36 seconds 01:36 Video Duration 01 minutes 45 seconds 01:45 Video Duration 01 minutes 17 seconds 01:17 Video Duration 00 minutes 49 seconds 00:49
The Independent
17-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Starmer accused of shutting foreign press out of major post-Brexit reset summit
With the prime minister set to unveil his post-Brexit reset plans alongside Brussels leaders, the Foreign Press Association (FPA) has said 'almost every European news outlet' with a foreign correspondent in London has been denied access to the summit. In a letter sent to Downing Street the FPA, which represents foreign journalists based in the UK, said: 'Sir Keir Starmer, you state that you want a reset with the EU. You organise a summit between the UK and the EU to restart the relationship. 'Yet you deny accreditation to almost every European news outlet who has a foreign correspondent in London, leaving out the biggest news agencies, the most important papers, the most trusted broadcasters. 'The Foreign Press Association in London represents the top international news outlets in the world, the vast majority of which have been denied access to Monday's summit. 'We urge you to reconsider, if not out of a consideration for press freedom at least out of fairness.' One journalist hoping to attend the summit said two of their countries biggest news outlets had been shut out, comparing it to shutting the BBC and PA out of a summit in Brussels. The reporter said: 'I believe it is a complete and utter shambles. They have denied access to public broadcasters and news wires from Spain, Italy, Germany and many other countries but granted it to freelancers. 'Either they have no understanding of who the key players in European media are, or they simply don't care.' Government officials said they had received 500 accreditation requests for only 100 spaces, with the majority of those 100 awarded to European outlets. 'We always accommodate as much as we can,' a source stressed. Monday's summit is the culmination of months of negotiations between the UK and EU on the future of Britain's relationship with Brussels. The prime minister will be joined by European Commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa as they set out a path forward. Major announcements include the expected unveiling of a youth mobility scheme between the UK and EU, which would let young people live, work and study freely between Britain and Europe. Britain is also hoping to secure access to the EU's major 150 billion euro defence fund, which would be a significant boost to the UK's arms firms.
Straits Times
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Israel urged to give media ‘unrestricted' Gaza access
The Foreign Press Association said its members 'salute our Palestinian colleagues who continue to report stories at great personal risk'. PHOTO: AFP JERUSALEM - The Foreign Press Association May 3 called on Israel to allow news media 'unrestricted' access to Gaza, off-limits to outside journalists operating independently since the war there began in October 2023. 'We call on Israel to stop the never-ending delays, uphold the fundamental principles of press freedom and allow unrestricted entry for journalists to Gaza,' the Jerusalem-based association wrote in a statement to mark World Press Freedom Day. The FPA has more than 350 members working for foreign media outlets in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. An AFP journalist sits on its board of directors. The association criticised Israel for an 'unprecedented ban preventing foreign journalists from entering Gaza', calling the decision a 'mark of shame for a country that claims to be a beacon of democracy'. The FPA, which has filed an appeal with the Israeli Supreme Court challenging the ban, said its members 'salute our Palestinian colleagues who continue to report the story at great personal risk'. 'Nonetheless, the Israeli restrictions have severely hindered independent reporting and robbed the world of a full picture of the situation in Gaza,' the association added. The war that continues to devastate Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023. With the exception of a journalist for US outlet CNN who entered a field hospital in Rafah operated by the United Arab Emirates in 2023, the only outside journalists allowed into Gaza, which is under Israeli blockade, did so with Israeli forces. Their reports were subject to military censorship. The UN Human Rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said it 'sombrely marks World Press Freedom Day as Palestinian journalists continue to be killed or injured at an alarming rate with impunity'. The office said it had independently verified the killing of 211 journalists in the Gaza Strip since Oct 7, 2023, including 28 women. Israel's military has accused many of the journalists killed in its strikes of being 'terrorists', members of the Palestinian militant groups Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Hamas's attack on Israel which sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. According to health ministry figures in Hamas-run Gaza, the overall death toll in the territory since the war broke out is more than 52,400. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
BBC's Jeremy Bowen accuses Israel of blocking journalists from Gaza
Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's international editor, has accused the Israeli government of blocking journalists from Gaza because of scenes 'they don't want us to see'. Bowen said that in the last 18 months, he had been granted only half a day with the Israeli army within Gaza. He said that the lack of access was part of an attempt to 'obfuscate what's going on, and to inject this notion of doubt into information that comes out'. Speaking after he accepted a special fellowship award for the Society of Editors conference, he said that while Palestinian journalists were doing 'fantastic work', he and other international media colleagues wanted to contribute to reporting on the ground in Gaza. 'Why don't they let us in,' he said. 'Because there's stuff there they don't want us to see. Beginning after those Hamas attacks on 7 October, they took us into the border communities. I was in Kfar Aza when there was still fighting going on inside it. They had only just started taking out the bodies of the dead Israelis. Why did they let us in there? Because they wanted us to see it. 'Why don't they let us in to Gaza? Because they don't want us to see it. I think it's really as simple as that. Israel took a bit of flack for that to start with, but none now, certainly not with [President] Trump. So I don't see that changing anytime soon.' The Israeli government has been approached for comment. However, Israel's military has previously said that it has escorted journalists to Gaza to allow them to report safely. According to the Foreign Press Association, Israel's defence authorities have said that journalists in Gaza could be at risk in wartime and could endanger soldiers by reporting on troop positions. Scores of journalists have been killed since the war started. Asked about whether international media should trust Gaza casualty figures released by the territory's health ministry, which is led by Hamas, Bowen said the numbers were currently 'the best measure that we have' because of the inability of reporters and other bodies to verify them. The ministry says more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war. 'I think without question, it's the bloodiest war that they've had since the foundation of the Israeli state of 1948,' Bowen said. 'If the place could open up, people could go through, look at the records, count the graves, exhume the skeletons from under the rubble and then they'd get a better idea. But when the doors shut, these things become very, very difficult.' Last year, Bowen was among 50 journalists, including the BBC's Lyse Doucet and its former presenter Mishal Husain, calling on Israel and Egypt to provide 'free and unfettered access to Gaza for all foreign media'. According to the Foreign Press Association, Israel's defence authorities have said that journalists in Gaza could be at risk in wartime and could endanger soldiers by reporting on troop positions. Bowen's intervention comes with the BBC still investigating the making of the documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which was pulled from iPlayer after it emerged that the 13-year-old who narrated the film, Abdullah al-Yazouri, was the son of the deputy minister of agriculture in the Hamas government.
