Open letter
To the Prime Minister of the State of Israel,
Benjamin Netanyahu,
to the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt,
Abd al-Fattah as-Sisi,
Almost a year of war – and the governments of Israel and Egypt are still preventing international reporters from travelling to the Gaza Strip to report on it. Almost a year of war, and your governments are still preventing us from gaining an unaccompanied and independent picture of the situation in Gaza. The almost complete exclusion of international media in a crisis of this enormous global scope is unprecedented in recent history.
After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: Grant us access to the Gaza Strip!
After almost a year of war, we call on the Egyptian government: Let us enter the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing!
The presence of independent reporters is never as important as in wars and armed conflicts. We are not a party to the conflict. We, the editors-in-chief and directors, the reporters and our organizations, the publishers and television stations, have decades of experience in assessing and analyzing various international crises.
Anyone who makes independent reporting on this war impossible is damaging their own credibility. Anyone who prohibits us from working in the Gaza Strip is creating the conditions for human rights to be violated.
We know the risk we are taking. We are prepared to take it.
Give us access to the Gaza Strip. Let us work – in the interest of all!
Signed by:
DIE ZEIT, ZEIT ONLINE (Giovanni di Lorenzo, Jochen Wegner)
Taz, the daily newspaper (Barbara Junge, Ulrike Winkelmann)
Star (Gregor Peter Schmitz)
THE MIRROR (Dirk Kurbjuweit)
Dpa (Sven Goesmann)
Reporters Without Borders (Anja Osterhaus)
Art (Carolin Ollivier)
Editorial Network Germany (Eva Quadbeck, Sven Oliver Clausen)
German Journalists Association (Mika Beuster)
Süddeutsche Zeitung (Judith Wittwer, Wolfgang Krach)
IMAGE (Marion Horn)
THE WORLD (Ulf Poschardt)
ZDF (Bettina Schausten)
Handelsblatt (Sebastian Matthes)
RTL/NTV (Gerhard Kohlenbach)
Deutsche Welle (Peter Limbourg)