“This incident once again underscores the serious lack of transparency and accountability in how the Indian government issues and enforces orders for the removal of social media content and the blocking of accounts,” said Kunāl Majumder, CPJ’s India representative. “Any action affecting journalists or news organizations must be based on clear legal grounds, be subject to independent judicial oversight, and not infringe on press freedom. India still lacks a credible mechanism to review or challenge these opaque and arbitrary orders.”

On July 5, two of Reuters’ handles, @Reuters and @ReutersWorld, were blocked, with X saying the accounts were obstructed “due to legal demands.” Several reports also suggest that accounts of Turkish broadcaster TRT World and the Chinese state media outlet Global Times were censored. The accounts were restored the next day. A government official speaking on condition of anonymity told CPJ that the authorities had not issued any orders to block the accounts and that they were engaging with X to get them restored. 

However, in a July 8 post, X countered the Indian claim and said that on July 3, the Indian authorities had ordered the platform to block 2,355 accounts. X also expressed concerns about “ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders.” X has already sued the Indian government over a new official portal that it says grants “countless” government officials expanded powers to issue takedown orders.

The Indian government denied issuing any recent blocking order against Reuters and others and said the accounts were unintentionally restricted due to a previously issued directive that was part of broader digital enforcement measuresimplemented in the wake of heightened national security concerns. 

Authorities said they’d asked X to restore access immediately and blamed a 21-hour delay on the platform for the continued impediment.

In May 2025, X expressed concern about the Indian government’s demand to block over 8,000 accounts, and asked for such executive orders to made public.

X and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not reply to CPJ’s emails seeking comment. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Media freedom is often a casualty of war, and Israel’s recent war with Iran is no exception. We have seen Israeli authorities use security fears to increase censorship, while extremist right-wing politicians have demonized the media, legitimizing attacks on journalists,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Despite hopes that we will see a ceasefire in Gaza this week, Israel’s government appears relentless in its determination to silence those who report critically on its military actions.”

After Haaretz newspaper published an interview with Israeli soldiers who said they were ordered to shoot at unarmed Gazans waiting for food aid, a mayor in southern Israel threatened to shut shops selling the popular liberal paper. This follows the government’s decision last year to stop advertising with Haaretz, accusing it of “incitement.”

Authorities are also pushing ahead with a bill to dismantle the public broadcaster, Kan, and shutter its news division, the country’s third-largest news channel. Meanwhile, government support has seen the right-wing Channel 14 grow in popularity.

The hostile climate fueled by Israel’s right-wing government has emboldened settler violence against journalists. On July 5, two Deutsche Welle (DW) reporters wearing press vests were attacked by Israeli settlers in Sinjil, West Bank — an incident condemned by Germany’s ambassador and the German Journalists’ Association, which called it “unacceptable that radical settlers are hunting down media professionals with impunity.” Reporters from AFP, The New York Times, and The Washington Post were also present. Palestinian journalists had to flee.

“War is a dangerous time for civil rights – rights that Netanyahu’s government is actively undermining as it moves toward dismantling democracy,” Haaretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn told CPJ.

‘Broadcasts that serve the enemy’

During the Israel-Iran war of June 13 to 24, anti-press government actions included:

• A June 18 military order requiring army approval before broadcasting the aftermath of Iranian attacks on Israeli military sites. Haaretz reported that this order was illegal as it was not made public in the official government gazette or authorized by a parliamentary committee.

• On June 19, security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Israelis who see people watching “Al Jazeera broadcasts or reporters” to report their sightings to authorities. Israel shut down the Qatari-based outlet in May 2024, and six of its journalists have been killed while reporting on Israel’s war in Gaza. Many Arabs in Israel still watch Al Jazeera broadcasts, and former Israeli officials have appeared on the network since the shutdown. 

“These are broadcasts that serve the enemy,” Ben-Gvir said. 

• On June 20, Ben-Gvir and communications minister Shlomo Karhi issued a directive that broadcasting from impact sites without written permission would be a criminal offense.

When Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara demanded that the ministers explain the legal basis for their announcement, the ministers said she was “trying to thwart” their efforts to ensure that foreign media “don’t help the enemy target us.”

• On June 23, Haaretz reported that the police’s legal adviser issued an order giving officers sweeping powers to censor journalists reporting from the impact sites.

“This directive, which primarily targets foreign media and joins a wave of police and ministerial efforts to obstruct news coverage, is unlawful and infringes on basic rights,” Tal Hassin, an attorney with Israel’s biggest human rights group, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), told CPJ.

ACRI petitioned the Attorney General, arguing that the police adviser did not have the legal authority to issue such an order. It has not received a response.

Journalists censored, detained, and abused

CPJ subsequently documented at least four incidents involving journalists who were abused and blocked from reporting.

• On June 20, police stopped a live broadcast from Tel Aviv by Turkish state-owned broadcaster TRT’s correspondent Mücahit Aydemir, although he told the officers he had the required permits, including authorization from the military censor. For several days afterwards, Aydemir received “unsettling phone calls” from unknown Hebrew-speakers, he told CPJ.

• On June 21, privately owned Channel 13’s journalist Ali Mughrabi and a camera operator, who declined to be named, citing fear of reprisals, were expelled from a drone crash site in Beit She’an, northern Israel, despite showing their press accreditation. During a live broadcast, Deputy Mayor Oshrat Barel questioned their credentials, shoved the cameraperson, and ordered them to leave. She later apologized.

“What we’re experiencing isn’t just about the media — it’s about citizenship,” Mughrab, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian origin, told CPJ.

• On June 22, a civilian police volunteer squad, led by far-right activist and rapper Yoav Eliasi, known as “The Shadow,” detained three Jerusalem-based, Arab Israeli journalists and one international journalist, after separating them from their non-Arab colleagues outside a building in Tel Aviv that had been damaged by an Iranian strike.

Mustafa Kharouf and Amir Abed Rabbo from the Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency, Ahmad Gharabli, with Agence France-Presse news agency, and another journalist who declined to be named, citing fear of reprisal, were held for three hours.  

Kharouf told CPJ, the unit asked them who was “Israeli” and allowed the non-Arab journalists to leave. 

“One officer accused us of working for Al Jazeera, even though we showed official press credentials,” said Kharouf.

“When I showed my ID, they told me I wasn’t allowed to film because I’m not Israeli – even though they treat us like Israelis when it comes to taxes,” Gharabli told CPJ.

Armed volunteer squads have rapidly grown from four before the October 2023 Hamas attack to around 900 new units, an expansion that “had negative effects on Arab-Jewish relations,” Dr. Ark Rudnitzky of Tel Aviv University told CPJ in an email. Squad members “tend to suspect an Arab solely because they are Arab,” he said.

“It was clear they targeted the journalists because they were Arab,” said Israeli journalist and witness Oren Ziv, who wrote about the incident.

The Central District Police told CPJ via email that the journalists were “evacuated from the building for security reasons related to their safety and were directed to alternative reporting locations.”

• On June 24,  Channel 13 correspondent Paz Robinson and a camera operator who declined to be named were reporting on a missile strike in southern Israel’s Be’er Sheva when a woman shouted that he was a “Nazi” and “Al Jazeera” and blocked him from filming, screaming, “You came to celebrate over dead bodies.”

“After I saw the woman wasn’t backing down, I decided to leave. I’m not here to fight with my own people. I’m not a politician. I came to cover events,” Robinson told CPJ.

Earlier in the war with Iran, CPJ documented eight incidents in which 14 journalists faced harassment, obstruction, equipment confiscation, incitement, or forced removal by the police.

The Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit told CPJ via email that police “made significant efforts to facilitate safe, meaningful access for journalists” during the war with Iran.  “While isolated misunderstandings may occur…case was addressed promptly and professionally.”

CPJ’s emails to the Attorney General, Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk, Ben-Gvir, and Shlomo requesting comment did not receive any replies. 

Kholod Massalha is a CPJ consultant on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and a researcher with years of experience in press freedom and freedom of expression issues.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Mohamed Mandour.

The April 27 women’s anti-war demonstration in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia was small but significant — one of several recent protests criticizing Hamas, which has controlled Gaza with an iron fist since ousting its political rival Fatah in 2007. Designated a terrorist organization by many Western governments, Hamas is known for violently targeting and killing its critics.

“They even told me that I would be responsible if my wife participated in the demonstration,” said Abu Jarad, a 44-year-old correspondent for Ramallah-based privately owned Sawt al-Hurriya radio station. “I have not covered any recent demonstrations,” he concluded, recalling how he was beaten and interrogated for hours by Hamas-affiliated masked assailants in the southern city of Rafah in November 2023, accusing him of “covering events in the Gaza Strip calling for a coup.”

He only secured his freedom with a promise to stop reporting.

Another journalist told The Washington Post they feared covering highly unusual demonstrations in March 2025 would lead Hamas to accuse them of spying for Israel. A third said Hamas’ internal security agents sometimes followed journalists as they reported. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Their fears of reporting on opposition to Hamas seem well-founded. A statement by Palestinian Resistance Factions and Tribes in Gaza, which includes Hamas, condemned the protesters as “collaborators with Israel,” a charge historically used to justify executions. Israeli outlets said that Hamas had killed Palestinians who participated in the March anti-war protests.

In an interview with Reuters news agency, a Palestinian official from a Hamas-allied militant group condemned “suspicious figures” who tried “to exploit legitimate protests to demand an end to the resistance” against Israel’s occupation of Gaza. Armed, masked Hamas militants forcibly dispersed some protesters and assaulted them, according to the BBC.

Spies and journalists are ‘one and the same’

Abu Jarad reported Hamas’ threat against himself and his wife to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), the official union for Palestinian journalists, and PJS publicly condemned Hamas for violating press freedom.

Prior to this, PJS had only published one other incident involving Hamas during the war — the brutal assault of Ibrahim Muhareb, who was beaten unconscious by armed men in plainclothes who said they were from the police investigations department. He sustained deep head wounds.

“Without giving any reason, they tried to assault me,” said Muhareb, a freelance photographer for the local Quds Feed media network and the Turkish state-owned broadcaster TRT, who was working from a tent next to southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital.

“When I tried to contact a police officer in charge of journalists’ affairs, they tried to dismantle my tent. When I resisted, they began assaulting me, by kicking me,” the 28-year-old said.

“I tried to speak to them calmly, but they began to beat me even more severely. They suddenly struck me with an instrument, causing me to lose consciousness, and blood flowed from my head,” he told CPJ.

“Some colleagues tried to intervene, but they prevented them, literally telling them that ‘the spy and the journalist are one and the same,'” Muhareb said.

Muharab said he tried to lift a cover put over his head and face but the officers threatened him with a gun. Eventually, some journalists pulled him free and sought medical treatment for wounds all over his body.

Muharab’s experience is not unusual — it’s his decision to go public that marks him out.

“There are major violations committed by the Hamas government and group against journalists,” PJS’ head Nasser Abu Bakr told CPJ. “The violations range from summonses, interrogations, phone calls, threats, sometimes beatings and arrests, to harassment, publication bans, interference with content, and surveillance.”

Violations by Hamas are underreported

For almost two decades, CPJ has documented multiple press freedom violations by Hamas — as well as all the other warring parties in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories — including detentions, assaults, obstruction, and raids.

The war in Gaza has been the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ started keeping records in 1992, with at least 178 journalists among some 52,000 Palestinians killed since Hamas’ deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. An overwhelming majority of these killings, arrests, and threats were carried out by Israeli forces.

Meanwhile, press freedom violations by Hamas during the war have been vastly underreported.

PJS often documents Hamas attacks on the media internally, without publicizing them, for fear of reprisals, the group told CPJ. In other cases, PJS staff hear about events secondhand as journalists are too scared to report them.

CPJ’s experience echoes that of PJS.

In separate incidents this year, two Gaza-based journalists told CPJ that they were intimidated by Hamas security agents who blocked them from reporting in certain areas. The journalists did not consent to CPJ going public about their experiences for fear of retaliation. To them, the priority was to be able to continue reporting from the field.

More recently, a TV crew told CPJ they were assaulted by Hamas security forces while trying to film. But, again, the journalists did not want CPJ to publicize the incident as it was later resolved between the powerful clans that wield influence over most of Gaza’s population.

PJS’ deputy head Tahseen al-Astal told CPJ that Palestinian journalists are reluctant to spotlight their own problems, driven by a collective desire not to “pivot eyes from the war in Gaza,” which they felt was a more pressing story.

“Most journalists have begun to practice self-censorship in their writing to avoid any problems with security,” he added.

Mohammed Abu Aoun is another of the few journalists willing to speak publicly.

A correspondent for Fatah-affiliated Awda TV, Abu Aoun told CPJ that he was beaten by Hamas’ Internal Security Force in 2024 while interviewing a woman near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.

“During the interview, the woman insulted Hamas and some of its leaders. The officers immediately took me to an unknown location and beat me,” said Abu Aoun, 26, adding that they searched his cell phone and told him to stop working in the vicinity of the hospital.

In response to CPJ inquiries, Ismail Al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, said the government had received no media complaints regarding “threats related to covering protests or public gatherings,” threats from security personnel, or summonses from internal security agents.

Al-Thawabta said the government had “fully opened the field” for media to cover events freely in a “safe, transparent” environment and it was committed to “ensuring that security agencies do not interfere with the content of media coverage or the work of journalists.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

On Friday, four Palestinian journalists were injured by an Israeli shell while they were reporting in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Sami Shehadeh and Sami Barhoom were covering war-related events for the TRT Arabic TV channel, Ahmad Harb was on duty for Al Arabiya TV at the time of the incident, and CNN stringer Mohammad Al-Sawalhi was also struck by shrapnel, resulting in a slight injury to his right hand and bruising on his left leg, according to TRT World, Arab News, Al-Jazeera, CNN, and RT Arabic. The journalists were transferred to Shohada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where Shehadeh had his leg amputated.

A video captured by Al-Jazeera shows a shell being fired in an open residential area, followed by a group of journalists and others carrying Shehadeh, who is wearing a press vest and helmet—as were other journalists in the area of the attack. In the background, a journalist can be heard saying, “His right leg is blown off,” and added, It’s a direct targeted attack on journalists.”    

“CPJ condemns the Israeli attack in Gaza on a group of journalists wearing press insignia that resulted in cameraman Sami Shehadeh, of Turkish broadcaster TRT, having his leg amputated,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York. “The IDF’s disregard for press insignia, both after and prior to October 7, endangers the lives of journalists. This incident must be independently investigated, and those responsible for the attack must be held accountable.”

Shehadeh told Arab News that the group was in a relatively safe spot wearing press armor and helmets. “Even the car I arrived in was labeled ‘TV,’ and I’m a civilian and a journalist — they targeted us,” he said.

Right after the attack, while still in the hospital, Shehadeh appealed to the international community in a TRT video, asking, “Why do you ask us to wear press armor and helmets? The IDF clearly recognizes us as journalists wearing press vests, yet they still target us. Please put an end to this.”

In two interviews with Al-Jazeera Palestine and TRT Arabi, Barhoum mentioned that he and Shehadeh were in an open area with other journalists working for international media outlets and should have been easily identifiable by Israel Defense Forces tanks and drones, which were not close to them.  “As soon as I started speaking in front of the camera, a shell was directly fired at us, without warning, hitting me and Shehadeh,” he said “This was a targeted attack,” he added to Al-Jazeera, “and this is not the first time it has happened. But we will continue to cover because this is our moral and professional duty.”

In an interview with TRT following the attack on Friday afternoon, Türkiye’s Communications Director, Fahrettin Altun, strongly condemned the attack and added, “No matter what, we will continue to tell the world about Israel’s atrocities against civilians.”  Additionally, the United Nations said the Israeli attack on TRT Arabi team is yet another example of the dangers journalists face in Gaza and called for a “transparent and credible” probe.

CPJ research has documented a consistent pattern of IDF attacking journalists wearing visible press insignia. A May 2023 report found that of the 20 journalists killed by the Israeli military in the preceding 22 years, at least 13 were clearly identifiable as members of the media or were inside vehicles with press insignia at the time of their deaths, including the Palestinian American television journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7, 2023, several journalists have been killed or injured by IDF fire while wearing press insignia. On October 13, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed while wearing a press vest and helmet as he recorded cross-border shelling in Lebanon. On December 15, Al-Jazeera cameraperson Samer Abu Daqqa bled to death after Israeli authorities prevented his evacuation following what was believed to be an IDF drone attack. This attack also injured Al-Jazeera journalist Wael Al Dahdouh. Both Al Dahdouh and Abu Daqqa were wearing vests marked as ”press.”

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the North America Desk of the Israel Defense Forces on the April 12 attack did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Pacific media commentator and Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie has criticised New Zealand media coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, describing it as “lopsided” in favour of Tel Aviv.

He said New Zealand media was too dependent on American and British news services, which were based in two of the countries most committed to Israel and in denial of the genocide that was happening.

New Zealand media were tending to treat the conflict as “just another war” instead of the reality of a “horrendous” series of massacres with a long-lasting impact on Western credibility and commitment to a global rules-based order.

• READ MORE: Israel’s war on Gaza live: Israel accused of ‘AI-assisted genocide’ in Gaza
• David Robie’s Earthwise interview on the Pacific

Dr Robie was interviewed on Plains FM 96.9 community radio by Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths.

Lois asked: “What is happening to Gaza now is a nightmare, very disturbing, or should be, and yet are we, the public, in New Zealand and other countries, are we getting the true picture from journalists?”

Dr Robie replied, “No, we are getting a very sanitised version through our media, particularly in New Zealand, less so in Australia, but it’s pretty bad there . . .”

He explained the reasons for his criticism.

Praise for AJ and TRT coverage
During the half-hour interview, Dr Robie praised television coverage of the “real war” by independent news services such as the Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Turkey-based TRT World News, which have had Arabic-speaking Palestinian journalists on the ground in Gaza throughout the six-month-old war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Al Jazeera this week with closure of the network’s operations in Israel — under the powers of a new law — because of its graphic and uncensored coverage from the besieged enclave.

Al Jazeera called Netanyahu’s attack “slanderous” and managing editor Mohamed Moawad said: “What we are doing is trying to give voice to the voiceless and try and make sure that the suffering of civilians on the ground is heard by the entire world.”

Almost 33,000 Palestinians and more than 75,000 others have been wounded as outrage grows globally following Israel’s strike and killing of aid workers in Gaza this week.

Dr Robie is the founding director of the Pacific Media Centre and is pioneering editor of Pacific Journalism Review.

• The earlier Earthwise interview with David Robie on the Pacific is here

Plains FM’s Earthwise talks to journalist David Robie.   Video/Audio: Plains FM

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

On August 1, the Ofer Israeli Military Court ordered Abu Arafa, a correspondent for the London-based Quds Press News Agency, to be held in administrative detention for four months, according to Quds Press and the MADA Center, a Palestinian press freedom organization.

A representative for the Israel Defense Forces’ North America desk told CPJ via email that authorities were investigating Abu Arafa for alleged membership in a terrorist organization. Israeli forces raided Abu Arafa’s home and arrested him July 19, as CPJ reported at the time.

Separately, Israeli border guards blocked Palestinian journalist Majdoleen Hassouna, a reporter with the Turkish broadcaster TRT, from leaving the Israeli-occupied West Bank on July 25, according to reports from MADA and the Skeyes Center for Media Freedom, a regional press freedom organization.

“Whether they use prison walls or travel bans, Israeli authorities are showing their determination to clamp down on the Palestinian press,” said CPJ Senior Middle East and North Africa Researcher Justin Shilad. “Israeli authorities should immediately release all detained journalists including Amer Abu Arafa, and end the use of arbitrary detention and travel bans against the press.”

On July 25, Israeli border guards stopped Hassouna from leaving the West Bank to cross into Jordan, according to those reports by MADA and Skeyes.

Border guards held Hassouna’s passport for two hours before telling her that she was forbidden from traveling, without giving any reason. The MADA Center reported that Israeli authorities previously barred Hassouna from traveling in 2020 and 2021.

Additionally, CPJ is investigating Israeli forces’ recent detention of Faisal al-Rifai, who was sentenced on August 3 to six months in administrative detention for allegedly being a member of a terrorist group; al-Rifai was described in news reports as a freelance journalist but CPJ was unable to immediately find examples of his work since 2017.

CPJ is also investigating reports that Israeli border forces blocked Palestinian journalist Mujahid al-Saadi from leaving the West Bank to enter Jordan on July 26; CPJ was similarly unable to find examples of al-Saadi’s work in recent years.

CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces North America desk for comment on al-Rifai, Hassouna, and al-Saadi’s cases, but did not immediately receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of photojournalist Maks Levin’s death in Ukraine while he was reporting on the war in the Kyiv region,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. ”Levin is the sixth journalist known to have died covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine thus far. Ukrainian and Russian authorities must do everything in their power to investigate his death, ensure that those responsible are held accountable, and guarantee the safety of journalists covering the war from the ground.”

Levin’s death was announced today by the independent news website LB.ua, where he worked for more than a decade, and confirmed by presidential aide Andriy Yermak on Telegram. The outlet said police found Levin’s body on April 1 after a “long search” near the village of Huta-Mezhyhirska in the Vyshhorod district of the Kyiv region. 

The Vyshhorod district prosecutor’s office announced in a statement that it is investigating Levin’s death for a potential violation of the laws and customs of war under Article 438 of the Ukraine criminal code. “According to preliminary information, unarmed Maks Levin was killed by soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces with two firearm shots. A pre-trial investigation is ongoing, and measures are being taken to establish all the circumstances of the crime,” according to the statement.

Levin has been missing since March 13, as CPJ documented at the time. On that day, Levin drove with Oleksiy Chernyshov, a serviceman and former photographer, to Huta-Mezhyhirska to cover clashes between Russian forces and Ukrainians.  

Levin had left his car and was heading to the nearby village of Moshchun when he went missing, as CPJ documented. He had not been seen since leaving Huta-Mezhyhirsk, and Chernyshov’s whereabouts are still unknown, according to LB.ua’s statement.

Soldiers with the Russian 106th Airborne Division were fighting in the area at the time of Levin’s disappearance, Levin’s ex-wife Inna Varenytsia told CPJ by messaging app.

Levin was a freelance photojournalist and documentary filmmaker who had covered Russia’s invasions of Ukraine since 2014 and worked for various media outlets, including Reuters, the BBC, TRT World, and The Associated Press, according to LB.ua’s statement.

CPJ emailed the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries and the police of the Kyiv region for comment but did not receive any replies.

At least five other journalists have been killed covering the war since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, according to CPJ research.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.