“Tonight I must acknowledge the situation of journalists in Gaza. Reporting from there required unimaginable courage.” Actor Javier Bardem has once again raised his voice for Gaza, this time for the journalists murdered by Israel in the exercise of their profession. “Their deaths are a devastating reminder that the truth can be dangerous and that those who seek it deserve protection, not persecution by their killers. »
This is what the artist said when he received the Global Citizen of the Year award from the United Nations Correspondents’ Association (UNCA) in New York. Precisely because it is the Association of United Nations Representatives, Bardem began his speech with a plea for journalism: “It defines our collective understanding and transforms distant suffering into realities we feel deeply and cannot ignore.” »
According to Reporters Without Borders, at least 210 journalists have been murdered since the start of the genocide in Gaza. And, in at least 56 cases, the organization has “reasonable grounds” to believe that they were “deliberately attacked by the Israeli army” because of their journalistic activity or during the exercise of it. This, as Bardem lamented in his speech, “makes this conflict the deadliest for journalists, not only in modern warfare, but in all of history.”
“We cannot allow numbers and statistics to take away the humanity behind this tragedy. We must continue to share the names and stories of these courageous journalists,” he continued. The Oscar-winning actor notably named Bilal Jadallah, killed by an Israeli airstrike, or Roshdi Sarraj, who died when an Israeli missile hit the family home.
“That’s why I joined the Committee to Protect Journalists to demand immediate access to Gaza for international media and accountability for the killing of journalists. Not forgetting, of course, the tens of thousands of innocent children, women and men.”
“We cannot be global citizens if we refuse to see what is happening in the world; and if you open our eyes. » At this point, Bardem mentioned that journalism also allows global citizens to see the ravages of climate change: “We urgently need climate justice and alternative proposals that give us hope. »
And before concluding, he also dedicated a few words to the Sahrawi people: “At this critical moment for them, we must reaffirm the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people in Western Sahara.”
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