Reuters culpable in Israel's assassination of 246 Gaza journalists, says Canadian rep
Reuters culpable in Israel's assassination of 246 Gaza journalists, says Canadian reporter
M.U.H
27/08/202540
Canadian photojournalist Valerie Zink has announced that she is stepping down from her position as a stringer at Reuters news agency after eight years, saying that she can no longer be associated with an agency that is “justifying and enabling” the systematic killing of journalists in Gaza.
Zink, whose work has appeared in the American daily newspaper New York Times, Qatar-based Al Jazeera television news network, and various outlets throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, said on her personal Facebook page that Reuters' reporting has played a role in the circumstances leading to the deaths of 246 journalists since the onset of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in early October 2023.
She referenced the case of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, who was killed alongside several other colleagues in a targeted Israeli attack on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City on August 10.
“Reuters chose to publish Israel’s entirely baseless claim that al-Sharif was a Hamas operative – one of countless lies that media outlets like Reuters have dutifully repeated and dignified,” Zink wrote.
She also took a swipe at Reuters' reaction to the murder of its own employees.
Hussam al-Masri, who worked as a photojournalist for Reuters, was among at least 20 people killed on Monday, when Israel bombed the main hospital in southern Gaza.
Zink characterized it as a “double tap” assault — an initial attack on a civilian location succeeded by a subsequent strike aimed at medics, rescuers, and journalists.
“Western media is directly culpable for creating the conditions in which this can happen,” she said, quoting journalist Jeremy Scahill’s criticism that “every major outlet – from the New York Times to Reuters – has served as a conveyor belt for Israeli propaganda, sanitizing war crimes and dehumanizing victims.”
Zink contended that by uncritically echoing Israeli military assertions without substantiation, Western media has “made possible the killing of more journalists in two years on one tiny strip of land than in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and Ukraine combined.”
She said Reuters abandoned al-Sharif despite the fact that he secured the agency a Pulitzer Prize.
“It did not compel them to come to his defense when Israeli forces placed him on a hit list … or when he appealed for protection after an Israeli spokesperson publicly threatened him. It did not compel them to report on his death honestly when he was hunted and killed weeks later,” she said.
Zink said she can no longer conceive of wearing her Reuters press pass without experiencing “deep shame and grief.”
She committed to refocusing her efforts in tribute to the journalists of Gaza, whom she referred to as “the bravest and best to ever live.”
As Israel persists in prohibiting foreign journalists from accessing the coastal territory, Palestinian reporters continue to be the exclusive source of firsthand reporting from within the war zone.
The Federation of News Agencies of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has expressed its deep concern over the continued assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli forces while carrying out their duties.
The federation emphasized that what is happening in Gaza constitutes a clear violation of international laws and norms, and comes in the context of Israeli violations of freedom of the press and media, and its policy of confiscating the truth, gagging, covering up its daily violations, and preventing them from reaching global public opinion.
