We have post UN historical precedent for ICJ conviction of media and politicians’ complicity in genocide and now it is time to do the same with Western policians and media.
Western media companies have made themselves part of the genocide mechanism in Palestine, and there are historical precedents for holding them accountable.
The ruthlessness of Israel’s genocide machine in Palestine, along with the direct complicity of the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments, are two key pillars of the horrors being inflicted on the Palestinian people (and in the attacks on human rights defenders worldwide).
But there is an important third pillar: the role that complicit Western media companies play, as they deliberately spread Israeli disinformation and propaganda, justify war crimes and crimes against humanity, dehumanize Palestinians, and obscure information about the genocide. According to international human rights law, such actions can and should be subject to sanctions. And there are historical precedents.
Seventy-six years ago, when delegates gathered at the newly formed United Nations to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the importance of protecting freedom of expression was at the forefront.
They intended to declare that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
However, in the wake of half a century of horrific atrocities, driven largely by the dehumanization of millions based on their race, ethnicity, religion, or other status, they were all too aware that speech could also be used as a powerful weapon to destroy others’ rights, including the very right to life.
In the same document, the UN made it clear that freedom of expression does not grant media companies or others the right “to engage in any activity or perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.” At the same time, in another UN conference room, delegates were gathering to create a new convention on the prevention and punishment of genocide.
Here, too, the authors were aware of the danger of speech that dehumanizes and incites. The final convention would criminalize not only genocide but also incitement to genocide and complicity in genocide—prohibitions that apply not only to states but also to private actors. The authors of both instruments were aware that the Nuremberg Tribunal had just two years earlier convicted publisher Julius Streicher for incitement to and “persecution on political and racial grounds.”
The court found that Streicher’s media publication Der Stürmer continued to publish articles containing “incitement to murder and extermination” even though he was aware of the horrors being perpetrated by Nazi Germany against European Jews.
Fifty years later, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) would convict three media personalities for their role in inciting the genocide in Rwanda. Two worked for the television and radio company Mille Collines and one for the newspaper Kangura. All three were found guilty of incitement to genocide (among other crimes).
During sentencing, ICTR Judge Navi Pillay (now a commissioner in the UN’s international investigative commission examining Israel’s crimes) admonished the perpetrators: “You were fully aware of the power of words, and you used … a communications medium with the greatest public reach to disseminate hate and violence … Without a gun, machete, or any other physical weapon, you caused the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians.”
Der Stürmer knew what they were doing. Mille Collines knew what they were doing. And today, CNN, Fox, BBC, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Berlingske, Information, and the majority of the Danish Parliament know what they are doing.
This does not mean that these Western media outlets are in all respects modern counterparts to Der Stürmer and Mille Collines, but like these historical examples, they have recklessly crossed the boundaries of ethical journalism and may, in some cases, find themselves legally exposed as well.
In light of the world’s first live-streamed genocide, unfolding on screens from Boston to Botswana, it is simply not credible to claim that Western media companies are unaware of the realities on the ground and what they are doing to conceal them. They have undoubtedly made conscious choices to hide the genocide from their audiences, systematically dehumanize the Palestinian victims, and shield the Israeli perpetrators from accountability.
In the wake of the International Court of Justice’s conclusions that the genocide allegations are plausible, its orders for provisional measures, the ICC prosecutor’s requests for arrest warrants, and the release of several damning reports on Israel’s conduct from independent international human rights mechanisms, Western media companies and politicians have, instead of fully reporting on these developments, suppressed information about them and doubled down on their coverage and political protection of Israel.
Equally important is that the audience for these media companies is not limited to uninvolved bystanders.
It also includes Western government officials and politicians who are directly complicit in the genocide by providing military, economic, intelligence, and diplomatic support to Israel, as well as the voting populations that enable this support.
And it includes a significant number of Israeli citizens with dual citizenship who travel back and forth to participate in the killings. The connection between media incitement and harmful actions is more direct than these media companies may admit.
If your only source of information is mainstream Western media, you might have no idea that Israel is facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice, or that Israel’s leaders are the subject of arrest warrant requests for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. It is likely that you have never heard the numerous statements on genocide from the Israeli president, prime minister, ministers, and military leaders.
You will likely still believe the stories of beheaded Israeli babies (which have long since been proven fictitious) and be unaware of the many Palestinian babies who have actually been beheaded. You will almost certainly not be aware of the systematic killings of Palestinian civilians, children, infants, women, the elderly, the disabled, and others.
You will not know about the torture camps, the systematic rape of prisoners, and the Israeli snipers targeting small children in Gaza. And you might not even know that Israel now holds the world record for the murder of journalists, aid workers, UN staff, and healthcare professionals. Instead, transparent false Israeli disinformation and propaganda are regularly and uncritically published in Western media to justify war crimes, dehumanize Palestinians, and distract the public from the daily atrocities committed in Israel’s campaign of extermination.
Stories covering the genocide are censored. The voices of Palestinians and human rights defenders are suppressed. Journalists are instructed not to mention “occupied territory,” “Palestinians,” or “refugee camps.”
The civilian Palestinian victims who are not entirely erased are, at best, reduced to “collateral damage” or “human shields,” or, at worst, to “terrorists.” In massacre after massacre, Palestinians in the headlines are not killed by Israel; they simply “die.”
In the rulebook of Western corporate media, there is no genocide, only a war of self-defense. And the story started on October 7. There is no coverage of the background of 76 years of ethnic cleansing, persecution, mass imprisonment, gross human rights violations, and apartheid. In short, Western media companies have made themselves part of the genocide mechanism in Palestine (read: Hasbara Network).
Without real accountability, these influential actors will continue to abuse their power and, in doing so, trample on the human rights of all people who fall on the wrong side of the line between those supported by these companies and those they choose to denigrate and dehumanize.
Defenders of Palestinian human rights in the West, who oppose Israeli genocide and apartheid, naturally know better than anyone how important it is to preserve freedom of expression.
No group in modern history has been subjected to more official and corporate silence or had its speech more criminalized by Western governments. Restrictions on freedom of expression are never imposed on those with the most power but are always aimed at those whom power despises most. The time has come to strengthen freedom of expression, not to erode it. But freedom of expression does not protect incitement to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
These actions can and should be subject to criminal accountability. Both defamation and incitement can also result in liability in civil courts. Cases have already been initiated in international courts for Israel’s crimes against humanity and genocide in Palestine, and more will surely follow.
It is not unthinkable that some media companies or individuals will be held accountable in the coming months and years, just as was the case with the Nuremberg and Rwanda tribunals.
Whatever happens in the courts, it is certain that these media outlets will ultimately be held accountable in the court of public opinion.
For human rights defenders and people everywhere who seek to hold power accountable, this process is urgent. And it has, in fact, already begun. The growing wave of public criticism of the blatant bias of Western media during this genocide has forced some companies to begin adjusting their reporting, even if only slightly.
It proves that change can happen if change agents are mobilized. There is power in speaking out, in supporting independent media, and in boycotting. As a first step, anyone who cares should unsubscribe from these media outlets, both print and electronic, switch to independent media, and encourage others to do the same.
To again quote Judge Pillay in the Rwanda ruling: “The power of the media to create and destroy fundamental human values comes with great responsibility. Those who control such media are accountable for the consequences.”
The task of ensuring this accountability ultimately falls on all of us.