ISTANBUL
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the National Journalists' Union (SNJ) announced on Tuesday that they filed a complaint over restrictions on press freedom and alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
The IFJ and SNJ said in a statement that they filed the complaint with Paris’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor on Nov. 26 against unknown parties, citing numerous testimonies from French journalists collected anonymously.
"The freedom to inform and to be informed, fundamental principles, must become a reality again in Gaza and the West Bank," the organizations said, reiterating the need for action and the role of the French justice system.
They noted that the media lockdown of Gaza, an "unprecedented" blackout in the conflict, and the "ruthless repression" of Palestinian journalists, along with 225 killings verified by the IFJ, remain "at the heart of the complaint."
The two organizations referred to French journalists’ descriptions of daily reality on the ground, marked by denial of access, threats, confiscation of equipment, occasional physical assaults, arbitrary detentions, and sometimes even manhunts.
Underlining that the complaint does not target any specific individual, the watchdogs stressed that the obstacles documented are carried out by military and police units, customs and administrative services, and private individuals, including settlers in the occupied territories.
"The risk of being killed is real, sometimes tangible, when you find yourself pursued by thirty armed settlers. These violations of journalists’ fundamental rights cannot go unpunished," said Vanessa Ripoche and Julien Fleury, general secretaries of the SNJ.
The statement also underscored that the reported acts take place in occupied territories, which "prevents Israel from invoking state immunity" and "allows French courts to take action," as the violations target French nationals and affect their fundamental freedoms.
"This is the first time that a legal action of this nature—based both on systematic obstruction of journalists’ work and on war crimes targeting media professionals—has been brought before a national court to protect French reporters in a conflict zone," said Ines Davau and Louise El Yafi, lawyers for the IFJ and SNJ.