AJ 25th Book: Al Jazeera’s Silver Jubilee Told Through Voices from Within
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Journalists Expose U.S. Newsrooms’ Bias and Censorship on Palestine Coverage
September 9, 2025
In October 2023, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (“MADA”) documented an unprecedented wave of violations against press freedoms amid Israel’s intensified military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. According to MADA, at least 39 journalists and media professionals were killed, many while performing their duties in the field, marking the deadliest month for Palestinian media to date.
Alongside these tragic deaths, MADA recorded extensive destruction: the homes of 44 journalists were bombed or heavily damaged, and 21 media institutions’ headquarters were either destroyed or severely impacted. Broadcasts were halted, and the operations of three media outlets and websites were entirely prevented.
Moreover, 22 journalists were wounded—seven of them in the Gaza Strip—as part of the sprawling attacks throughout October. MADA tracked a total of 188 violations of media freedom across Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem; 187 were attributed to Israeli forces, while one incident was attributed to Palestinian security services.
The report underscores the devastating human toll: over 9,227 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, were killed, and more than 23,561 were injured during the same period. Thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, and mosques were damaged or destroyed, further collapsing Gaza’s essential infrastructure.
MADA also detailed how the health sector in Gaza effectively collapsed under bombardment, lacking lifesaving medicines, equipment, and functional hospitals. Meanwhile, a deliberate siege obstructed food, water, fuel, and electricity supplies, while communications and internet outages isolated the Strip entirely—paralyzing information flow and press operations.
The report portrays October 2023 as a grim and systematic campaign not only targeting civilians but specifically seeking to silence the media. Journalists were killed, wounded, detained, censored, or displaced—undermining the fundamental right to information. MADA concludes with a searing condemnation of these acts, labeling them as war crimes under international law, and calls on the international community to ensure protection, accountability, and justice for the journalists and media institutions under siege.
Reference –
https://www.madacenter.org/print.php?id=150a86y1378950Y150a86