Palestine (2023-2024)

Activities

GFMD facilitated a coordination meeting between its members actively supporting journalists and media in Palestine responding to the Israel-Gaza war with the Journalists in Distress network and donors seeking to better support affected journalists, media, and support organisations. The meeting centred on assessing the impact of the war on journalism, media support, and information integrity. Its goal was to identify current needs, available support mechanisms, and crisis responses in the MENA region.

Outcomes

Below are some of the outcomes and initiatives that resulted from GFMD´s coordination and information-sharing activities to support Palestinian media and journalists in 2023.

Coordination with emergency response mechanisms: GFMD members ARIJ and the Samir Kassir Foundation (SKF) participated in an online meeting of the Journalists in Distress (JiD) network. The purpose was to brief international actors on the situation and share how organisations in the region were responding to the emergency. G: Palestine Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) was introduced by the GFMD to the JiD network. This facilitated MADA's involvement in referring and verifying cases related to journalists in distress.

New crowdfunding campaign: ARIJ launched a crowdfunding campaign with a target of $100,000 to provide direct emergency assistance to individual Palestinian journalists. By the end of December 2023, ARIJ successfully assisted around 100 Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip. The campaign page is accessible here.

Partnerships with global organisations: ARIJ was introduced to Avaaz, a global campaigning organisation, by GFMD. This collaboration allowed ARIJ to brief Avaaz on the situation in Palestine, enabling them to benefit from Avaaz's crowdfunding campaign.

Palestinian Media Emergency Coalition for Gaza Journalists and their Organisations: In March 2024, the Palestinian Media development organisations started actively forming a coordination coalition consisting of media development NGOs that are working in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The primary objective of this coalition is to coordinate the rapid support for Palestinian journalists reporting from the ground as lifesaving support that enables them to continue their coverage. The coalition is open to all local Palestinian media development organisations.

Shared resources: Dedicated email lists for the MENA region and Palestine were used by GFMD to facilitate information sharing and joint action. This included compiling a spreadsheet of social media accounts of trustworthy independent news organisations in Palestine and neighbouring countries. This list was shared with META’s policy team for inclusion in their "Cross Check" scheme and with TikTok.