The Sri Lanka Journalists for Global Justice (SLJGJ) has issued a strong condemnation of what it calls Israel’s “targeted assassination” of four Al Jazeera journalists, including Anas al-Sharif, who were reporting from Gaza. The group said the slain journalists were “enabling the world to witness the unfolding genocide against the Palestinian people—an act of truth-telling that cost them their lives.”
Declaring solidarity with their colleagues in Gaza, the SLJGJ described the killings as part of a “deliberate attempt to suppress the truth” and noted that Israel has killed over 200 journalists in the past 22 months—more than the total killed in major wars since World War II.
Full Text of the Statement:
The Sri Lanka Journalists for Global Justice strongly and unequivocally condemns Israel’s targeted assassination of four Al Jazeera journalists, including Anas al-Sharif, who were reporting from the frontlines in Gaza. These journalists were enabling the world to witness the unfolding genocide against the Palestinian people—an act of truth-telling that cost them their lives.
As a journalist group committed to global justice and media freedom, we regard Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues as part of our professional fraternity. We cannot remain silent while media workers are gunned down by a state accused of genocide, in a deliberate attempt to suppress the truth. Israel has killed more than 200 journalists in the past 22 months—more than the total number of journalists killed in major wars since the end of World War II.
This systematic silencing of the media is part of a broader campaign of media blackout, as Israel continues to kill and starve hundreds of Palestinians, including infants and children. The Zionist regime views journalists as enemies—obstacles to its genocidal campaign aimed at ethnically cleansing the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
We are appalled by the silence of Western nations, which often preach to Global South countries about the importance of media freedom and the right to free speech. Their inaction in the face of these atrocities is not only hypocritical—it is complicit and appalling.
We call on Israel to immediately halt its inhumane military campaign and agree to a ceasefire. We urge Western governments to demand an end to the killing of journalists and to take all necessary measures to guarantee their protection, in accordance with the Additional Protocols of the Geneva Conventions, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and numerous UN General Assembly and UNESCO resolutions.
Finally, we call on the international community to break its silence and apply pressure on Israel to allow continuous international media presence in Gaza. The global public’s right to truth and freedom of expression must be upheld.
