French journalists wearing bloodied jerseys reading PRESS stage a "die-in protest" during a demonstration in support of Palestinian reporters, in front of the Opera Bastille in Paris, on April 16, 2025. (Photo by MEE)
Paris, April 18 (RHC)-- Hundreds of journalists in France staged a "die-in protest" to honor their fallen colleagues in Gaza, as some 200 reporters have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 2023.
Participants in the demonstration, holding photographs of deceased journalists and dressed in blood-stained jerseys emblazoned with the word "PRESS," staged a symbolic protest by lying motionless on the steps of the Opéra Bastille in central Paris on Wednesday.
The names of some of the journalists killed in Gaza were read out as the protesters lay on the steps of the opera.
One of the participants at the rally in Paris pointed out that the old viewpoint about the Israelis' war on Gaza, and what news must be covered, were changing in French newsrooms. “I’m part of a group of journalists of color, and the silence surrounding the genocide in Gaza is really resonating with us. It is something we long couldn’t talk about in our work,” Celia Gueuti, a journalist for Radio France, told MEE.
“Talking about Gaza had become somewhat taboo. When you want to talk about it, you’re perceived as an activist and not a journalist, and you’re accused of talking about the war only because of the racial aspect of it. It’s something we’ve often been silenced about,” she said.
“I’m happy that our white French colleagues are now speaking out,” about the Israeli war on Gaza, said the journalist.
Elsewhere, some 160 more journalists gathered in Marseille to stage a similar rally. The participants at the demo in the French southern city read out the names of the victims and then observed a minute of silence to pay tribute to the victims of Israeli attacks.
The protesters at the rally said it was their duty to support the journalist reporting from Gaza. “As journalists, it is our duty to express our solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues and to demand, time and again, the right to enter Gaza,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement following the protest.
“We support and protect, through our presence, our Palestinian colleagues who demonstrate unmatched courage in sending us images and testimonies of the immense tragedy unfolding in Gaza.”
The protesters at the rally included media experts from at least 36 publications, including Agence France-Presse, Radio France, Mediapart, Arte and BFM TV, as well as some freelance journalists.
The European Federation of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists were among other groups that supported the protest.
The UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese,urged journalists worldwide on Wednesday to follow the example of the French groups and express their support for their Palestinian colleagues who are subjected to the Israelis' brutality in Gaza.
Since the Israeli regime forces launched their genocidal war on Gaza, more than 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza.
[ SOURCE: PRESS TV and NEWS AGENCIES ]
