Let’s begin by a different story. The Emergency declared in 1975 is regarded as the blackest period in the history of India, the largest democracy in the world. The State, at that time, was perceived to have an inherent desire to make the press and media kowtow before the whims of the government. It is said that the government did succeed to a certain extent and the Indian media houses, except a very few, literally crawled instead of bending. However, in spite of that, the governmental vandalism didn’t dare to harm the media buildings. But, at this time, the Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip are not doing that even and are targeting the media buildings instead. What is the real intention therefore? Is the attack against the media buildings a war against information or is it trying to teach the internationally acclaimed media organizations a lesson of the lifetime?
It has been learnt that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired intentionally at least one missile directly at a Gaza City building that domiciliates or provide housing for a number of news organizations and the incident injured at least two journalists along with forcing others to abandon. Which are these organizations? Well, they include Reuters, Fox News, Al-Arabiya, and more than a dozen other regional and international news organizations and production companies. The building happens to be the renowned Al-Shuruq Tower.
Though there are many who have already cropped up and are terming the incident as a part of the warfare, the argument fails to hold water. There have been innumerable warfare till now but the number of destructions of media buildings has been negligible. Besides the nature of attack and the amount of smashed property point towards the presence of a sinister design. According to Reuters, the Israeli military had contacted the news agency minutes before the attack to confirm the location of its Gaza office and this is more dreadful.
The CPJ has already condemned it vehemently and its Executive Director Joel Simon said, "The latest strikes by the IDF will further staunch the already limited information currently emerging from Gaza." "Combined with the ban on international journalists entering Gaza, Israeli strikes are crippling the work of the media. We call urgently for greater care and restraint."
The above-mentioned premises make us reach the inference that the attacks against the media buildings are meant to stop the flow of information from the ruined city. If we are correct, it is a travesty of the international law. Nevertheless, we have a greater fear. Will it end soon?
No comments:
Post a Comment