This is a transcript of a speech I gave at a snap rally in Naarm / Melbourne on 25 October 2024, called in response to Israel manufacturing pretext to mark the last remaining journalists on the ground in northern Gaza for assassination. The protest was organised by Free Palestine Melbourne.
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Thank you.
I also acknowledge the Indigenous People as the custodians of the lands on which we’re gathered. I acknowledge Elders past and present and also acknowledge any First Nations people who may be with us here today. Sovereignty of these lands has never been ceded. This is, and always will be, Aboriginal land.
As mentioned - I’m a freelance photographer and photojournalist and I’m a member of MEAA Members for Palestine, a rank and file group of union members in the creative industries, which includes journalists.
We’re here today at the headquarters of The Age and Channel 9. Just one of the mainstream media outlets - alongside Channel 7, 10 and the ABC and NewsCorp - on this continent that has, for more than a year, pulled the wool over our eyes, justified the horrific atrocities being committed against Palestinians and that has defamed protesters and activists as a genocide continues to unfold in Gaza.
The other week I spoke at a rally, in which I condemned the silence of the mainstream media, as journalists are being murdered on the ground in Gaza while also condemning the silencing of journalists on this continent who dare to speak out against the genocide of Palestinians.
As Israel manufactures pretext to mark the last remaining journalists on the ground in northern Gaza for assassination, can you guess how many times this has been mentioned in The Age; or by any other mainstream media outlet, for that matter?
Not a single mention.
I reiterate the point that I made the other week - the complete silence by the mainstream media as their colleagues are targeted and murdered in Gaza while doing their jobs, is outrageous.
The silence is deafening.
Some media organisations will posit, through their codes of ethics, that a journalist must be impartial and ‘balanced’, to give all sides equal weight and say.
My response to that is - there’s no ethics in both sides-ing a genocide. There’s no ethics in justifying the actions of an oppressor in the name of ‘balance’.
If the job of a journalist is to hold power to account and inform the public, giving both sides of an already clear power imbalance equal say is not doing that job properly nor effectively.
There’s no balance or ethics in giving equal weight to one side: the perpetrator of war crimes - committed in broad daylight and live streamed so brazenly and blatantly; and another side which are the victims of said war crimes.
There’s no holding power to account when, in the name of balance, power holders are given free rein to say as they please without being corrected or even questioned. It amounts to little more than sanitising injustice.
There’s no ethics when media organisations line up with power holders to go out of their way to defame protesters and activists who are taking a stand against injustice, who are doing what’s supposed to be your job in holding a government that’s complicit in aiding and abetting a genocide, to account.
I’ll end this speech with a question to the journalists who work not only in the building behind me, but for journalists who work for every other media outlet on this continent as well:
When you first made the decision that you wanted to pursue a career in journalism, what were your intentions and expectations?
Were you intending to be someone who informs and educates the public, to tell the truth, to, without fear or favour, hold power to account?
I’m sure your expectations in pursuing this as a career wasn’t to ultimately find yourselves whitewashing and justifying a genocide. I’m sure your intentions weren’t to find yourselves acting as a shield for power holders.
To all journalists, reporters - even the editors who’ll be reviewing this footage - ask yourselves: do the expectations and intentions you had, match with the reality now that you’re in this job?
Through your collective power and strength - you can speak out and push back against the status quo of your employers.
Be on the right side of history. Use the platforms that you have to speak against injustice, to speak against an active genocide.
Tell the truth.
And Free Free Palestine.
-ENDS-
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