Italian press unions and journalist organisations have urged both the Italian government and the European Union to take immediate action and pressure Israel to grant journalists unrestricted access to Gaza.

During a joint press conference held at the Foreign Press Association in Rome on Wednesday, representatives of the Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana (FNSI), the Ordine dei Giornalisti (ODG), and the Middle East Justice and Peace group demanded that European institutions help lift the media blockade imposed on Gaza and end the restrictions on press freedom in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Gianni Giovannetti, a spokesperson for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, reminded that nearly 300 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of what he described as Israel’s “genocidal campaign” on 7 October 2023. “Killing journalists is killing the truth,” he said, stressing that media access is not only a professional necessity but a defence of the universal right to information.

FNSI Secretary-General Alessandra Costante called for impartial and independent coverage to verify reports from Palestinian journalists who lost their lives documenting the situation in Gaza. In a recorded message, Palestinian journalist Al-Hassan Selmi from Gaza stated that attacks against reporters have intensified since the ceasefire began on 10 October, noting that “the strategy has changed, now they target journalists gathered in one place.”

Earlier this week, a Palestinian journalists’ rights organisation reported that Israeli forces killed 44 Palestinian journalists in displacement tents, part of a wider toll of over 270 media professionals killed since Israel’s offensive began in October 2023. A report by the Freedoms Committee of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate documented bombings of journalists’ tents near hospitals and UN shelters, as well as sniper attacks on displaced areas.

International agencies, including AFP, have warned of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, where famine now threatens civilians as well as journalists still risking their lives to report from the besieged territory.

Targeting civilian journalists constitutes a war crime under Article 79 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, a principle repeatedly violated in Gaza, where truth itself is under siege.