21st of May, 2022

MCC Elders Statement 

On Protection of Journalists 

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable

to the Lord than sacrifice.                       (Proverbs 21:3)

“We work toward a world where all creation lives in harmony” 

(From the MCC Statement of Faith)

The Council of Elders of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) mourn the loss of Shireen Abu Akleh, a longtime reporter with the Al Jazeera Arabic network who was killed while covering an Israeli army operation in the West Bank town of Jenin on May 11. The organization Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for an international investigation of Abu Akleh’s death. 

Akleh was pre-deceased by Yasser Murtaja (Gaza), Simone Camilli (Italy), Fadel Shaana (Palestine), James Miller (Britain), and more than a dozen others covering the violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

According to the CPJ, at least 28 journalists were killed due to their work in 2021 and 7 journalists have been killed in the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022.

CPJ’s Program Coordinator for Middle East and North Africa, Sherif Mansour, says. “Journalists must be able to do their jobs safely and freely without being a target.”

In the United States, Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri was pepper-sprayed and arrested while reporting on an incident between protesters and police in 2020. She was later acquitted at trial. In 2014, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly were arrested while covering protests in Ferguson, Missouri, USA. Their charges were later dropped.

Reporters have been expelled from China for reporting on detention camps in the Xinjiang province where Uyghur Muslims, Christians and others have been imprisoned. According to the Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo (Abraji), in Brazil during 2021, 89 journalists and media outlets were the target of 119 gender-related attacks related to their profession. Abraji recorded attacks involving gender-identity, sexuality, sexual orientation, appearance and sexist stereotypes, as well as episodes of aggression against women communicators -cis or trans- in general. The Reporters Without Borders organization has developed a world press freedom index that ranks countries on a survey of press freedom violations and abuses against journalists and media, with Nordic countries at the top: https://rsf.org/en/index 

The MCC Elders believe a free press provides accountability for people in power and, while journalism is not a perfect profession, most reporters are seeking truth and justice. Journalists uncover corruption in politics and business; they keep an eye on local government and offer investigative reports, event analysis, as well as the good news stories of courage, liberation and human kindness. Reporters play an essential role in maintaining democracy and we are grateful for them. Let us pray for their safety and protection.