News

August 30, 2025 - Venice/Palestine -  The 82nd Venice International Film Festival, held from August 27 to September 6, 2025, has unfolded amid deep political tensions, with growing calls for solidarity with Palestinians dominating the cultural landscape. A major highlight was a mass pro‑Palestine protest, with thousands marching through Venice during the festival to demand that the Biennale take a stand against what they describe as the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and banners reading “Free, Free Palestine,” aiming to use the festival’s global visibility to amplify their message. Earlier in the week, pressure...

August 30, 2025 - Palestine -  In a poignant display of unity and grief, Israeli and Palestinian activists gathered in Nazareth on August 30, 2025, bearing blue-and-white “Press” insignia stickers. The demonstrators, including those directly impacted by the conflict, marched for peace and justice in Gaza, urging protection for journalists and echoing their demand with banners reading “Don't assassinate the truth.” Empty pots were banged during the protest to symbolize the hunger ravaging Gaza. This dramatic public expression of solidarity was sparked by the death of 33-year-old freelance photojournalist Mariam Dagga, killed along with four...

August 30, 2025 - South Korea - Hundreds of South Koreans and Palestine solidarity supporters gathered on August 30, 2025, in Seoul, staging a protest outside the Israeli Embassy. Demonstrators condemned the recent bombing of a Gaza hospital on August 25, which resulted in the targeted killing of journalists as well as more than a dozen other victims. The gathering decried the attack as emblematic of a broader pattern of violence and genocide. Organizers and activists—advocating for global solidarity with Gaza—branded the hospital strike not as collateral damage but as a deliberate assault on press...

August 30, 2025 - India -  Nearly nine years after the brutal 2016 assassination of veteran journalist Rajdev Ranjan, a Special CBI Court in Muzaffarpur delivered a long-awaited verdict on August 30, 2025. Ranjan—then the Siwan bureau chief for a prominent Hindi daily—was fatally shot on May 13, 2016, in broad daylight while returning from a hospital visit. His killing sparked widespread outrage and prompted demands for a thorough investigation. The CBI took over the probe, navigating a politically charged atmosphere, notably due to suspicions surrounding influential RJD strongman and former Siwan MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, who was...

August 30, 2025 - Palestine -  A photo of Gazan photographer Anas Fteiha at work—capturing civilians waiting for food at a humanitarian distribution site—ignited uproar in Germany. Published by outlets including Bild and Süddeutsche Zeitung in August 2025, the image was accused of being "staged" or used as Hamas propaganda. However, a careful analysis by the fact-checking site Snopes found that the scene was genuine: the subjects were indeed receiving aid from a verified charity, as omitted in the initial reports. Despite this refutation, the initial allegations placed Fteiha in harm’s way, forcing him to...

August 30, 2025 - El Salvador -  Over the past five years, El Salvador has plummeted 61 places in the Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index, now ranking 112th out of 180 countries. Under President Nayib Bukele’s increasingly authoritarian administration, women journalists report mounting gender-based online abuse, much of it directed by pro‑Bukele accounts, even as independent media outlets are driven into exile. A journalist speaking anonymously to Latin Times detailed relentless digital harassment throughout Bukele’s tenure—“non‑stop” misogynistic and sexually explicit attacks. These often included offensive remarks about their appearance, personal attacks on their families, and...

August 30, 2025 - Mozambique - Ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (August 30), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and MISA Mozambique issued a joint call urging authorities to clarify the fate of two missing journalists—Ibraimo Abú Mbaruco and Arlindo Chissale, whose disappearances remain unresolved and distressing for their families. Arlindo Chissale, editor of the news website Pinnacle News, vanished on January 7, 2025, when a group of eight men—some wearing national security and defense uniforms—ordered him off a public minibus in Silva Macua. Since that day, he has...

August 29, 2025 - Croatia/Palestine -  The Trade Union of Croatian Journalists (SNH) and the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) rallied support from fellow labor organizations and the broader public in a powerful protest against the genocide in Gaza and the targeted killings of over 240 Palestinian journalists. The action drew participants to demonstrate their commitment to truth and media freedom amid an escalating humanitarian crisis. In their joint statement, the SNH invoked the vital role of unions in responding to grave injustices, insisting that journalists cannot remain silent while such crimes unfold. Maja Sever, SNH’s...

August 29, 2025 - Palestine -  Palestinian journalists in Gaza are enduring a harrowing reality—where survival feels like a lottery. As Nour Swiriki, a 37-year-old reporter for El Sharq TV, puts it, “today is not your turn... your turn might be tomorrow or after tomorrow.” Her words capture the fear haunting media professionals who continue to document life amidst relentless Israeli bombardment. According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), Israel has so far killed 240 of their colleagues, making this the deadliest stretch for journalists in Gaza in modern times. Swiriki describes devastating losses among...

August 29, 2025 - Philippines - As the Philippines marks its National Press Freedom Day on August 30, 2025, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and a coalition of press freedom organizations are urgently calling for the release of Frenchie Mae Cumpio, the country’s only journalist currently detained. Cumpio has been held for five years without conviction, facing charges that critics say are based on fabricated evidence, such as allegations of illegal firearms possession. Cumpio, 26, formerly served as executive director of the independent outlet Eastern Vista and hosted a community radio program in Tacloban covering issues like...

August 29, 2025 - Palestine -  Deutsche Welle (DW) Director-General Peter Limbourg has strongly condemned the “unacceptable” attack on DW journalists in the occupied West Bank, calling such hostility toward press representatives “absolutely unjustifiable.” The targeted incident occurred in the village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, where a DW correspondent and their cameraman—clearly identifiable by their press vests—were attacked by radical Israeli settlers. Stones were hurled, and they were chased in a violent assault on media freedom. Despite managing to escape unharmed, their vehicle sustained significant damage. DW, alongside the German Journalists’ Association (DJV) and...

August 29, 2025 - Peru -  At the conclusion of a well‑intended congressional discussion on an Amnesty Law, journalist Katherine Ayarza, from the news outlet Epicentro, became the target of a troubling incident. The event on August 26, organized under the Democratic Tuesday initiative by Peru’s Congressional Citizen Participation Office, was meant to foster civic dialogue. Instead, it ended with a disconcerting attack directed at a media professional. As the session wrapped up, a group of attendees aggressively encircled Ayarza. Over shouts and demeaning remarks intended to undermine her work, they forcefully knocked her cellphone...

August 29, 2025 - Palestine -  Two successive Israeli strikes hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza, killing at least 20 people, among them five journalists—Reuters contractor Hussam al‑Masri, Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Salama, AP freelancer Mariam Abu Dagga, freelance video journalist Moaz Abu Taha, and reporter Ahmed Abu Aziz. Human rights groups and legal experts condemned the “double tap” nature of the strikes—targeting the hospital then striking again as first responders and journalists arrived—as a serious violation of international law. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urgently called for a complete and independent investigation into the killings. CPJ criticized Israel’s initial military...

August 29, 2025 - Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia is intensifying its efforts to cultivate a new generation of environmental journalists as part of its broader push to achieve the sustainability objectives outlined in Vision 2030. The initiative is led by the National Center for Environmental Compliance (NCEC), which has emphasized the urgent need for skilled reporters who can interpret complex ecological issues, raise awareness, and connect public opinion with policymaking processes. According to Saad Al-Matrafi, NCEC’s executive director of media and communication, environmental journalists must go beyond standard news reporting. He explained that they...

August 29, 2025 - Palestine -  A rights group has revealed a sharp uptick in the detention of Palestinian journalists by Israeli occupation forces, underscoring deepening restrictions on press freedom amid escalating conflict. According to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS), as of August 29, 2025, a total of 55 Palestinian journalists are currently held in Israeli prisons. Among them, 50 were arrested since the onset of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, including one female journalist. Further clarifying the detention landscape, a July 2, 2025, report by PPS noted that 22 of those journalists are being...

August 29, 2025 - Azerbaijan -  Azerbaijani authorities have intensified their pressure on independent media with the arrest of photojournalist Ahmed Mukhtar, who has become the 12th individual detained under the wide-ranging investigation into the so-called “Meydan TV case.” His detention has drawn sharp concern among press freedom advocates, who view it as part of a broader effort to silence dissenting voices and intimidate media workers in the country. Mukhtar was arrested in Baku and placed under 40 days of pretrial detention by the Khatai District Court. The charges against him have not been publicly...

August 29, 2025 - USA -  A powerful and intimate new documentary titled Armed Only With a Camera, directed by Craig Renaud and produced by photojournalist Juan Arredondo, pays tribute to the life and tragic death of award‑winning American journalist Brent Renaud. Brent was the first U.S. journalist killed during the Russia‑Ukraine war, gunned down on 13 March 2022 by Russian soldiers while filming an independent documentary in Irpin, Ukraine. Arredondo was seriously wounded in the ambush but survived. The film premiered at the HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles, receiving widespread acclaim before later...

August 29, 2025 - India -  A district court in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, has delivered a landmark verdict, sentencing five lawyers for their violent attack on senior journalist Ghanshyam Patel inside the Ujjain court in February 2009. The incident, deeply troubling given its location, has been condemned for breaching the sanctity of the judicial system. On August 28, 2025, Additional Sessions Judge Shrikrishna Dagliya sentenced Dharmendra Sharma, Shailendra Sharma, Bhavendra Sharma, and Purushottam Rai to seven years of rigorous imprisonment, while Surendra Sharma, nearly 90 years old, received a three‑year simple imprisonment term in view...

August 28, 2025 - Palestine - An incendiary editorial published by Middle East Monitor, titled “Yes, we kill journalists and the world can go to hell,” calls out what it describes as a systematic Israeli strategy of eliminating media workers in Gaza while dismissing global outcry. The piece highlights an emerging pattern: journalists are increasingly vilified as militants, following their deaths in strikes, rather than recognised as civilians protected under international law. The editorial cites the strike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital on August 25, where multiple media professionals were killed in what appears to have...

August 28, 2025 - Belgium/Palestine -  approximately 400 journalists and citizens gathered at Mont des Arts in Brussels to voice their support for Palestinian media workers who have been killed while reporting from Gaza. Organized collaboratively by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), the Belgian AJP‑VVJ, and the UK‑Ireland NUJ, the demonstration aimed to honour the memory of the 219 journalists who have died since the Gaza conflict began on 7 October 2023. The event featured 44 journalists reading aloud the names of their...

August 28, 2025 – Australia/China - The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has confirmed the return of its China bureau after nearly five years, appointing Allyson Horn as its new Beijing correspondent. Horn will begin her posting in the coming weeks, marking a crucial expansion of the ABC’s international presence. Horn brings extensive experience to the role; her first foreign assignment was in 2022 as the ABC’s Middle East correspondent, based in Jerusalem. She is described by ABC News Director Justin Stevens as "a formidable journalist" whose reporting is "brave and authoritative" and steadfast in giving...

August 28, 2025 – United Nations/Palestine - In a deeply emotional address to the UN Security Council, Algeria’s ambassador Amar Bendjama broke into tears while reading a heartfelt farewell letter penned by Palestinian journalist Mariam Abu Daqqa, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital earlier this week. Abu Daqqa, an Associated Press visual journalist, had written the letter to her 13-year-old son, Gaith, just days before her death. Bendjama described her words as carrying “more truth than any official statement.” The letter’s poignant message—"When I die, pray for me, not to...

August 28, 2025 – United Kingdom - Dozens of journalists gathered outside 10 Downing Street in central London on August 27, holding a vigil and reading aloud the names of more than 200 journalists killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. The demonstration, organized by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), followed a particularly deadly airstrike in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis—which claimed the lives of at least 20 Palestinians, including five journalists working for Al Jazeera, Reuters, and AP. The NUJ presented a letter demanding accountability and stronger action from Prime Minister Keir Starmer and...

August 28, 2025 – Australia - Veteran MP Bob Katter, founder of Katter’s Australian Party, incited controversy during a press conference in Brisbane when he shook his fist at Channel 9 reporter Josh Bavas after being questioned about his Lebanese heritage. The outburst, broadcast live, sparked immediate condemnation and raised concerns about media-hostility from public officials. Katter, who was addressing his support for an upcoming anti-immigration rally, interrupted Bavas’s question by shouting, “I’ve punched blokes in the mouth for saying that,” while accusing the reporter of being “a racist.” He emphasized his long Australian lineage,...

August 28, 2025 - Palestine/UK -  A disturbing development has emerged from the UK: Andrew Fox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) and retired British Army major, publicly suggested that Israel should target more journalists, particularly those associated with Al Jazeera. In a social media post following the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al‑Sharif, Fox provocatively asked: “When does a journalist become a legitimate military target? Maybe not often enough.” Fox went further, asserting that “information warriors” could be seen as participants in hostilities—a broad interpretation that risks dissolving one of the core...