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Dr. Henry Silke, lecturer in Journalism ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ, attended the Future of Journalism conference in Cardiff this September. His presentation of a paper co-written with Dr. Fergal Quinn discussed the coverage of the killings of Palestinian journalists in the UK and American Press. 

Journalism has many roles, but its key normative role is to act as the eyes and ears of the world, and in times of war to bear witness. Under the terms of the Geneva convention Article 79 formally states that journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in zones of armed conflict are civilians. Likewise Radio and television facilities are civilian objects and as such enjoy general protection. The attacks and killing of journalists in the current phase of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is unprecedented, both in Israel/Palestine and internationally. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as of September 2025 at least 197 journalists and media workers have been killed. 

Moreover, the CPJ maintains that numerous journalists and media workers have been targeted and murdered by Israeli forces while undertaking journalism duties. The committee at the time of writing is investigating over 20 other cases of possible targeting, as well as other unconfirmed reports of journalists killed in Gaza. This compares for example with 15 journalists and media workers killed throughout the Russian invasion of Ukraine, itself an unacceptably high number. 

While It is near impossible, in the information age, to blockade completely information from Gaza, this represents an attack on information gathering, reporting and analysis from Gaza. International journalists have also been banned from entering Gaza, in another attempt to hide the ongoing genocide there. In the study presented at Cardiff instances of journalist killings were traced, including targeted killings and an investigation was presented on how the press in the UK, and the USA report and frame the killings. 

As discussed by Dr. Silke there were key silences around the coverage, primarily in the low level of coverage itself, secondly in the lack of citation of war crimes when journalists are reported to have been murdered, and finally there was almost no condemnations of the killings by western politicians of the war crimes against Palestinian Journalists, reported in the UK and US press. According to Dr. Silke, the murder of journalists in Gaza is an attempt to silence Palestinian voices and news coming from Gaza, the low level of coverage as well as the lack of citations of war crimes and condemnation in the UK and USA act as a form of war propaganda that acts to downplay the severity of the crimes taking place in Palestine today and is a betrayal of colleagues in Palestine by many of their colleagues in the UK and US.