Hundreds of journalists joined demonstrations in Paris and Marseille (southern France) on Wednesday in a show of solidarity for their colleagues killed in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, AFP correspondents said.
In Paris, more than 200 journalists, including prominent members of the French press, lay down on the steps of the Opéra Bastille in a symbolic “die-in” as the names of the reporters killed in Gaza were read out.
Nearly 200 journalists were killed in the Palestinian enclave since October 2023.
“Gaza of faces, not just numbers”, read posters bearing photographs of their fallen Palestinian colleagues.
At the demonstration, placards bearing the logos of journalist trade unions stood alongside numerous Palestinian flags and keffiyehs. Some participants also chanted, “We will not be silent,” and “Free Palestine.”
Head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate Europe branch, Yousef Habash, made a stand against “genocide” in Gaza, demanding an end to the blockade imposed on the Strip.
Head of France’s journalist union SNJ-CGT, Pablo Aiquel, said, “We have never witnessed such a high number of victims in our profession.”
He said the right to information is under threat.
Reporters Without Borders Director General Thibaut Bruttin said “This gathering comes late, perhaps too late. (...) I've never seen a conflict during which a killed journalist is described as a terrorist.”
In Marseille, about 160 people attended a similar demonstration. The names of journalists killed in Gaza were read out, before the participants held a minute's silence to mourn the victims.
In an op-ed in the leading French daily Le Monde earlier this week, several journalist associations, trade unions and around 40 media organizations, condemned the Israeli media blackout in Gaza.
“The Israeli army is imposing a media blackout on Gaza to silence, as much as possible, the witnesses of the war crimes committed by its troops,” said the newspaper column.
