TPAN

TPAN applies pressure on the Mercury to cover the events in Gaza with integrity, transparency, and rigour.

To showcase our solidarity, the Tasmanian Palestine Advocacy Network (TPAN) is supporting a staged “die in” at the Mercury offices to represent the growing number of journalists being killed in Gaza for carrying out their essential work.

Journalism is essential in exposing the truth. Historically, oppressive regimes committing war crimes have targeted journalists for that reason. 

“Israel’s biggest enemy is the truth” - Husam Zomlot, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK.

The silence in the Australian media, in particular from our national broadcasters, about the true situation in Gaza is deplorable. Despite this silence, and thanks to the work of journalists in Gaza, there is huge and unprecedented public understanding and support for the Palestinian cause. 

Israel’s devastating bombing campaign, electricity blackouts, and media blockade in Gaza threatens news gathering and press freedom in hitherto unforeseen ways. Newsrooms around the world have a duty to cover these events with integrity, transparency, and rigour.

As of March 4, around 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack. Included in the mounting death toll are at least 83 journalists - 76 Palestinians, 3 Lebanese and 4 Israelis - according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which it says is the deadliest conflict for journalists since it began tracking deaths in 1992. These numbers were around January 15, with the casualties likely to be far higher today.

As are many, TPAN is appalled at the slaughter of journalists and their families and the apparent targeting of journalists by the Israeli government, which constitutes a violation of the Geneva Conventions. 

Media coverage continues to conflate opposition to the Israeli occupation and bombardment of Gaza with anti-semitism. We condemn this inaccurate reporting which serves only to divide the community and divert attention from the real atrocities playing out before us. As Australian-Palestinian writer Sara Saleh expressed “it is the wholesale murder of a people which is divisive... not our slogans, our posts, our protests”. The protest movement is a united anti-racist struggle.

We honour and stand in solidarity with frontline journalists of Gaza, and recognise the tremendous cost of their work. Mercury, these are your colleagues and contemporaries. 

TPAN calls upon the Mercury, as well as all Australian media outlets, to uphold the following steps outlined in an open letter signed by 337 journalists in Australia:

1. Adhere to truth over ‘both-sideism’. Both-sidesism is not balanced or impartial reporting; it acts as a constraint on truth by shrouding the enormous scale of the human suffering currently being perpetrated by Israeli forces. The immense and disproportionate human suffering of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza should not be minimised.
2. Centre the human tragedy in the coverage of the conflict. Human-focused coverage can include, as examples, daily updates on the civilian death tolls, sharing the profiles and stories of the lives lost and highlighting the humanitarian catastrophe.
3. Apply as much professional scepticism when prioritising or relying on uncorroborated Israeli government and military sources to shape coverage as is applied to Hamas. The Israeli government is also an actor in this conflict, with mounting evidence it is committing war crimes and a documented history of sharing misinformation. The Israeli government’s version of events should never be reported verbatim without context or fact-checking. This is our basic responsibility as journalists.
4. Give adequate coverage to credible allegations of war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid, and don’t avoid using the term “Palestine” where appropriate.
5. Provide historical context when referencing the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. The conflict did not start on October 7 and it is the media’s responsibility to ensure audiences are fully informed. Important contextual references include:
   1. the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their native lands in 1948 to make way for the state of Israel
   2. the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel since 1967, including that the UN deemed Gaza an Israeli-occupied territory even after Israel’s withdrawal from the enclave in 2005
   3. the roughly 5,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, including around 150 children, thousands of whom are held without charge and many of who suffer horrendous abuse
6. Provide full and fair coverage of Australia’s growing anti-war movement, including the large weekly protests in capital cities, and the traumatising impact of the conflict on Arab, Muslim and Jewish communities. When an estimated 100,000 people in Melbourne alone marched in favour of a ceasefire, not a single major Australian media outlet reported on this, despite it being the largest protest in decades. We are under no illusions that this is an oversight.
7. Be transparent about journalists who have been on all-expenses paid trips to Israel organised by pro-Israeli government groups. We also urge all Australian journalists from hereon to reject offers of paid trips to the Middle East.
8. Trust Australian journalists of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and Jewish backgrounds to do their jobs. Diversity is an asset in newsrooms and should be harnessed to enrich coverage. Journalists with identities that intersect with a live issue bring insights and perspectives otherwise unattainable from a disconnected, privileged vantage point.