The Gaza conflict seen through a window damaged by a bullet in the Associated Press Office in Gaza City. Photo:AP/Khalil Hamra.

During a visit in Gaza today, IMS is further assessing the safety needs among media practitioners operating inside Gaza. IMS is accompanying a mission organised by the International Federation of Journalists who met with the families of some of the media practitioners killed during the conflict

The mission, led by the President of the International Federation of Journalists, Aidan Wright, met the father to Basil Faraj, a 22-year old camera man who died on the first day of the Gaza conflict.

According to IMS's Anne Poulsen, who is travelling with the mission, the father told the international group, that Basil had only worked as a camera man for ten days. He was actually a journalist student who could not wait to get started, so he took a job as intern with an Algerian TV company in Gaza. On the day of his death, he was at a camera shoot covering a story about a Moroccan family. During the shoot, they heard explosions near by and decided to check it out. The team was hit by an explosion as they came near a government building which had come under fire with the Israeli Defence Forces.

- His father said, that Basil considered media work a humanitarian act, believing that a picture was a 1000 times stronger than a bullet. He used to say that media people were the real soldiers and that was why they deserved protection, accounts Anne Poulsen from Gaza.

IMS concerned about the safety of all media 

- IMS is joining this mission, in cooperation with the IFJ secretariat in Brussels, because we are very concerned about the safety of all journalists reporting on the Gaza conflict. We are taking action in conjunction with our international partners to help address these concerns, says Thomas Hughes, deputy director of IMS.

From Gaza, Ann Poulsen summarizes her first impressions on mission inside the Gaza Strip:

- I think it is becoming clear to everybody, that media have been subjected to an enormeous pressure during the Gaza conflict and that there is need for support of different kinds. Most immediate is of course the need to upgrade the safety of all media practitioners, she says.

 For further information, please contact IMS communications coordinator, Lotte Dahlmann, +45 2554-3541