“Mediacide”: Francesca Albanese on Israel’s War on Journalism
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s new report argues that the destruction of truth has become integral to the destruction of the Palestinian people. The report, “Truth Under the Rubble: Media in the Time of Genocide,” documents the killing of nearly 300 journalists and media workers in Gaza since October 2023, Israeli state censorship and incitement, and the role of Western media and digital platforms in reproducing Israeli narratives.
Drop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous spoke with Albanese, an Italian international lawyer who has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. They discuss what she calls “mediacide,” Israel’s killing of journalists including Drop Site contributor Hossam Shabat, incitement on Israeli TV, bias in Western coverage, and the New York Times’ response to her report.
Albanese has faced sustained backlash for her work. When she presented the report to the UN General Assembly on Monday, the Israeli and US representatives called her a “liar,” a “fraud,” and a “lunatic,” and the chair asked speakers to focus on the report’s contents. The US, Israel, and several European governments opposed her reappointment last year. Soon afterward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed economic and travel sanctions on her, citing her efforts to push the International Criminal Court to investigate US and Israeli officials and companies. Albanese, who is unpaid in her UN role, says the sanctions have cut her off from banking, and that her US-citizen daughter could commit a felony simply by having financial dealings with her. Her family is now suing the Trump administration.
Read the full UN report: [https://docs.un.org/A/81/249][1]
Subscribe on [YouTube][2] and wherever you get podcasts.
0:00 Intro: “Truth Under the Rubble”
1:15 Israeli and US reps attack Albanese at the UN
3:35 Why a report on the media?
8:30 What is “mediacide”?
10:10 Silencing the witnesses: Israel’s killing of journalists
14:00 Information as Israel’s “eighth front”: censorship and platforms
19:10 Why killing journalists is a war crime
22:40 Incitement on Israeli TV and international law
24:40 Western media bias in coverage of Gaza
28:20 The New York Times responds to the report
31:50 What US sanctions mean for Albanese and her family
36:05 Documenting Gaza as resistance against colonial erasure
_________
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[1]: https://docs.un.org/A/81/249
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/@DropSiteNews
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"content": "“Mediacide”: Francesca Albanese on Israel’s War on Journalism\n\nUN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s new report argues that the destruction of truth has become integral to the destruction of the Palestinian people. The report, “Truth Under the Rubble: Media in the Time of Genocide,” documents the killing of nearly 300 journalists and media workers in Gaza since October 2023, Israeli state censorship and incitement, and the role of Western media and digital platforms in reproducing Israeli narratives.\n\nDrop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous spoke with Albanese, an Italian international lawyer who has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. They discuss what she calls “mediacide,” Israel’s killing of journalists including Drop Site contributor Hossam Shabat, incitement on Israeli TV, bias in Western coverage, and the New York Times’ response to her report.\n\nAlbanese has faced sustained backlash for her work. When she presented the report to the UN General Assembly on Monday, the Israeli and US representatives called her a “liar,” a “fraud,” and a “lunatic,” and the chair asked speakers to focus on the report’s contents. The US, Israel, and several European governments opposed her reappointment last year. Soon afterward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed economic and travel sanctions on her, citing her efforts to push the International Criminal Court to investigate US and Israeli officials and companies. Albanese, who is unpaid in her UN role, says the sanctions have cut her off from banking, and that her US-citizen daughter could commit a felony simply by having financial dealings with her. Her family is now suing the Trump administration.\n\nRead the full UN report: [https://docs.un.org/A/81/249][1]\nSubscribe on [YouTube][2] and wherever you get podcasts.\n\n0:00 Intro: “Truth Under the Rubble”\n1:15 Israeli and US reps attack Albanese at the UN\n3:35 Why a report on the media?\n8:30 What is “mediacide”?\n10:10 Silencing the witnesses: Israel’s killing of journalists\n14:00 Information as Israel’s “eighth front”: censorship and platforms\n19:10 Why killing journalists is a war crime\n22:40 Incitement on Israeli TV and international law\n24:40 Western media bias in coverage of Gaza\n28:20 The New York Times responds to the report\n31:50 What US sanctions mean for Albanese and her family\n36:05 Documenting Gaza as resistance against colonial erasure\n_________\n\n➡️ FOLLOW Drop Site News for more independent news on war and politics\n\nStay INFORMED on our latest reporting: DropSiteNews.com\n\nLISTEN to the show as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.\n\nSUBSCRIBE to Drop Site News. Our reporting is FREE, and we are committed to keeping it that way. To help support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it’s what fuels our reporting: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe\n\nDONATE to support Drop Site's independent journalism. Help us continue our work with a tax-deductible contribution at donate.dropsitenews.com.\n\nDon’t like social media? We’ve got you covered. We launched a daily weekday newsletter, Drop Site Daily, which compiles the top stories our team is tracking throughout the day on social media, into one convenient, place: https://www.dropsitenews.com/s/drop-site-daily\n\n[Subscribe now][3]\n\n[1]: https://docs.un.org/A/81/249\n[2]: https://www.youtube.com/@DropSiteNews\n[3]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe?\n\n\nhttps://www.dropsitenews.com/p/mediacide-francesca-albanese-on-israels",
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