This Monday, the Portuguese Union of Journalists joined a request from 60 press and human rights organizations to end the association agreement between the European Union (EU) and Israel following the death of more than a hundred reporters.
The Union of Journalists said in a statement that it had signed the letter and sent it to the Foreign Ministry, headed by Paulo Rangel.
“The letter was signed by 60 trade unions and European journalistic organizations, including countries such as Spain, Luxembourg, France, Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Germany and Portugal,” the Portuguese organization reported.
According to the Federation of Spanish Journalists’ Unions (FeSP), the organizations have come together to send a letter this Monday to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, asking for action “against the unprecedented killings of journalists by the Israeli authorities and other violations of media freedom.”
In the letter, the organisations ask the EU to suspend the association agreement with Israel, which it has maintained since 2000, because, they claim, Tel Aviv has “violated human rights and international criminal law”.
They thus demand punishment for those responsible “for Israel’s war crimes and repeated violations of international law.”
In a letter written at the initiative of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the organizations condemn the “widespread and systematic violations” that they stress are being committed “by the Israeli authorities in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Israel and elsewhere.”
In a document also sent to the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrowski and the foreign ministries of all EU member states, they warn that the Israeli government has taken “unprecedented measures to restrict media freedom” that have in practice led to the establishment of a censorship regime.”
The organizations call for an end to the blockade on the entry of international, Israeli and Palestinian journalists into Gaza, an end to legislation that allows the closure of foreign media outlets, the release of Palestinian journalists under administrative detention or detained without charge, and the protection of the lives of media professionals.
The signatories to the letter include EU journalists’ unions and other organisations from various European countries, as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists and the European Federation of Journalists (FEP).
They also include the International Press Institute (IPI), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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