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September 01, 2025 – General –
In an unprecedented international protest, over 250 media outlets across more than 70 countries simultaneously blacked out their front pages, online homepages, and broadcast programming for one day. Coordinated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the global activism group Avaaz, this historic blackout on September 1, 2025, condemned the mounting violence against journalists in Gaza and demanded urgent protection for media workers on the front lines.
The blackouts took different forms across platforms—print editions were published entirely in black with stark solidarity messages, television and radio stations paused regular programming to air a coordinated statement, and online news sites either went dark or displayed protest banners. This powerful visual interruption was designed not just as a symbolic act, but a call to action, urging an end to impunity, evacuation of endangered reporters, and full access for international journalists to Gaza.
The campaign followed a string of devastating attacks, including the August 25, 2025, double-tap strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which killed five journalists. Just weeks earlier, Al Jazeera suffered one of its darkest moments when its reporter Anas al Sharif was killed in a targeted strike, alongside colleagues Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammed Noufal. These attacks have intensified global outrage, with press freedom advocates arguing that Israel is deliberately targeting the media to silence coverage of atrocities.
According to RSF, the toll of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli forces has surpassed 220 in less than two years, making Gaza the deadliest conflict zone for media workers in modern history. RSF’s director-general warned: “At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza … there will soon be no one left to keep you informed.”
By silencing themselves, the world’s media sent a united message: the deaths of journalists like those at Al Jazeera and countless others cannot be normalized. The blackout protest underscored a global demand for accountability, protection, and recognition that without journalists, the truth itself is at risk.
Reference –
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2025/9/1/israel-murders-journalists
