🛑Ferjal... News
**By Saad Fayyad**
In times of conflict and crisis, journalists are the eyes and ears of the world. They transmit from the heart of events images that may be the last in someone’s life—or in their own. Yet what we witness today, with the deliberate and systematic targeting of journalists and the ease with which they are eliminated physically and morally, is a double crime: a crime against humanity, and a crime against truth.
Targeting journalists is no longer just “collateral damage” on the battlefield. It has become an intentional method to crush dissenting narratives, conceal realities, and terrorize anyone who dares to carry a pen, a camera, or even a mobile phone to tell the world what is happening. When a journalist is targeted, it is not only an individual who is killed—their mission is silenced, and entire societies are pushed into darkness, where accountability and justice cease to exist.
What makes the situation worse is the perpetrators’ sense of impunity, born from the absence of accountability. When killers escape punishment, killing becomes ordinary. When the sanctity of the profession is violated without deterrent, violating it becomes habitual. This is not merely a moral decline—it is the collapse of the very human values that safeguard people’s right to knowledge and truth.
Protecting journalists cannot be separated from protecting democracy and free society. Without a free and safe press, rumors spread, ignorance prevails, and the culture of impunity is strengthened. How can officials be held accountable for corruption or human rights violations if journalists are silenced, terrified, or dead?
Therefore, the response must be clear and resolute:
International organizations and governments must shoulder their responsibilities in protecting journalists and prosecuting perpetrators.
International legal mechanisms must be activated to bring to justice those who commit crimes against journalists.
Media institutions and civil societies must stand in strong solidarity and reject any normalization with the targeting of the right to information.
This is not the time for silence. Every voice raised against this crime is a step toward saving the truth and keeping human conscience alive. For the death of a journalist is more than the loss of a life—it is the declaration of the death of truth itself.