IPI’s Finland National Committee and other journalist associations and press freedom organisations in Finland have released a joint statement urging Finnish President Alexander Stubb to increase diplomatic pressure and leverage its international position to strengthen protections for journalists in Gaza. Finland currently serves as co-chair of the Media Freedom Coalition – a group of 51 states that pledge to protect press freedom and journalists’ safety – and holds the chairpersonship of the Organization for the Cooperation and Security of Europe (OSCE).
An unprecedented number of journalists – a vast majority of which were Palestinian – have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military since the start of the war in October 2023. Despite urgent calls by press freedom groups and media outlets, the international community has largely failed to step up to hold Israel accountable to their obligations to protect journalists, as civilians, under international law. Independent investigations have shown that some of these cases were deliberate, targeted attacks on these journalists. Deliberate attacks on journalists are regarded as war crimes under international humanitarian law. Israel has also barred international journalists from accessing and reporting independently from the Strip, amid growing demands from press freedom groups, media organisations, and the international community. As a result, reporting on this conflict has been carried out by local reporters, who have covered this war while facing displacement, violence, and now starvation.
The petition is signed by Reporters Without Borders Finland, the International Press Institute Finland, the Council for Mass Media, the Finnish Media Federation, the Association of Editors (PTY), the Union of Journalists in Finland, and the Foundation for Media and Development (Vikes).