“I owe my colleagues in Palestine at least this much, and so much more,” wrote Canadian photojournalist Valerie Zink this morning, announcing her resignation from Reuters. After eight years with the agency, Zink tore up her Reuters press card in protest of the news agency's “willingness to perpetuate Israel’s propaganda.”
“It has become impossible for me to maintain my relationship with Reuters given its role in justifying and enabling the systematic assassination of 245 journalists in Gaza,” Zink wrote in a statement posted to her X account.
She added that when Israel killed journalist Anas Al-Sharif “along with his entire Al Jazeera crew in Gaza on Aug. 10,” Reuters chose to publish Israel’s baseless claim that Al-Sharif was a member of Hamas, “one of countless lies repeated by media outlets like Reuters.”
On 10 August, the Israeli occupation army carried out a massacre that killed six journalists when it struck an Al Jazeera crew’s tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City with a drone-fired missile.
At the time, the Israeli army announced it had assassinated Al-Sharif, accusing him of being a Hamas military commander and using his Al Jazeera role as cover.
Parroting the Israeli line, Zink noted, “did not spare [Reuters'] own reporters from the genocide Israel is committing. Five other journalists, including Reuters photographer Hossam Al-Masri, were among 20 people killed in another strike on Nasser Hospital.”
“It was what’s known as a 'double tap' strike, in which Israel bombs a civilian target like a school or hospital; waits for medics, rescue teams, and journalists to arrive; and then strikes again,” Zink explained in her statement.
On Sunday, Israeli forces killed over 20 Palestinians, including five journalists, in a double strike outside Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. The next day, journalist and academic Hassan Douhan was killed in a strike on tents sheltering displaced families in Al-Mawasi, raising the journalist death toll to 246.
“Western media outlets have made possible the killing of more journalists in two years on one tiny strip of land than in WWI, WWII,” Zink argued, pointing out that international media also ignore “starving an entire population, shredding its children, and burning people alive.”
This, she said, was made possible “by repeating Israel’s genocidal fabrications without determining if they have any credibility–willfully abandoning the most basic responsibility of journalism.”
She noted that Reuters abandoned Anas Al-Sharif despite his being on Israel’s public assassination list and despite his repeated pleas to the international media for protection.
“At this point, I can’t conceive of wearing this press pass with anything but deep shame and grief,” she concluded.
Repeated calls from international journalists to be granted unrestricted access to the Strip, to relieve the pressure on the besieged and starved Gaza press corps, have fallen on deaf ears. Israeli occupation forces maintain a tight blockade on Gaza, as they intensify shelling and ground invasion campaigns.
