Journalism & some journalists are Gaza war casualties

Foreign journalists have been kept out by the Israeli military. The Guardian reports:

Throughout the two-week bombardment of the Gaza Strip most journalists have been kept out by the Israeli government on the pretext of security. And the Israelis are pleased with the results.

Foreign journalists have been forced to report without getting to the detail of what is going on. That meant, at least in the early days of the bombardment, that reporters who would have been in Gaza were instead reporting from Israeli towns and cities under fire from Hamas, and Israeli officials found it easier to get themselves in front of a television camera

Five journalists who were there when the attack began have been killed.

Israel bombed a Gaza City media building. The Committee to Protect Journalists wrote:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked the rooftop of Al-Johara Tower, an eight-story building located in Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, which houses more than 20 international news organizations, according to multiple news outlets.

Al-Jazeera reported that at least one journalist was injured while filing a report from the roof of the building. The journalist was not immediately identified. Staff at Al-Shifa Hospital, where the journalist was taken, said the injuries were minor, according to a statement on Web site of the Iranian Arabic-language Al-Alam TV. Satellite transmission equipment on the roof of the building was also damaged in the attack, the Iranian English-language Press TV said on its Web site.

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, defended the strike in an interview with Al-Jazeera, saying that communications equipment in the building could have been used by Hamas.

Reporters Without Borders has issued an appeal to Israel to stop preventing journalists from entering Gaza. It says in part:

In view of the scale of the military operations and the repercussion they are having throughout the world, we believe the Israeli government’s decision to exclude the press from the Gaza Strip is untenable and dangerous.

addendum: alternate sources

Gaza Blogroll: First-person accounts of the conflict in the Gaza Strip recommended by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Twitter search the #Gaza hash tag to follow tagged debate on twitter.

Twitter search the #israel hash tag.

Twitter search the #hammas hash tag.

Reporters Without Borders latest on media exclusion from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli human rights groups blog the impact on civilians in Gaza and in Israel.