CPJ challenges Israel’s ban on international media access to Gaza in Israeli Supreme Court

Urgent, unrestricted media access critical to documentation of Israeli attacks on besieged territory 

 197 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed by Israel in two years

New York, October 16, 2025 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has filed an amicus brief supporting the Foreign Press Association in Israel’s second petition to the Israeli Supreme Court, calling for free and independent access for journalists to the Gaza Strip.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli authorities have refused to grant journalists independent access into Gaza. In the amicus brief, CPJ argued that Israel’s blanket prohibition on independent media access violates Israel’s commitments to protect journalists’ freedom of expression under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Despite a ceasefire now being in place for nearly a week, Israel has not announced plans to lift its continuous 741-day ban. Israel also refused to grant independent media access to the territory during the previous 58-day ceasefire between January and March 2025. 

“For two years, Israel has sought to control the narrative on Gaza with a range of measures that are unprecedented compared to any war in modern memory,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “This includes targeted killings of Palestinian journalists, attacks on media facilities, the banning of news outlets, and the prohibition on independent media access. With a ceasefire now in place, Israel cannot be allowed to normalize this unlawful behavior.”

CPJ’s analysis identified independent access as the central principle of war reporting. Foreign journalists have independently reported from many recent, high-casualty wars, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in the conflict-zones controlled by Ukraine. 

A CPJ review of media access in other conflicts found that Israel’s approach to prohibiting independent media access to Gaza — without adopting measures such as tailored access zones or other mechanisms to meaningfully enable press freedom — is akin to autocratic approaches to conflict, such as in Myanmar, West Papua and Russia. 

Instead of safeguarding independent access, Israel instead only provides military escorts: highly-controlled, infrequent trips that last a few hours on itineraries planned by the military for select international media who, while in Gaza, are unable to engage with Palestinians. The exclusive use of these escorts violate journalists’ freedom of expression, serving as a form of control and censorship that also infringe on the public’s right to information. 

This falls short of internationally-accepted practices for embedding, the practice of attaching journalists to military units to cover operations from within. Other militaries, such as those of the United States, the United Kingdom, and NATO, have detailed embed procedures that facilitate reporting trips that last days, if not weeks or months. However, even if Israel improved its embedding rules, it would never be sufficient: CPJ found that embedding can only be a complementary mechanism for access but is never a substitute for independent access. 

The amicus was filed on October 5 and CPJ is currently waiting for a response from the court. Oral arguments for the case are scheduled for October 23, 2025. 

In the preceding two years, Israel has killed at least 237 journalists and media workers, CPJ research shows, of which 197 were Palestinians killed in Gaza.

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About the Committee to Protect Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Editor’s note: The Committee to Protect Journalists’ amicus brief begins on page 7 of the filing in English.