Two San Diego reporters are among the 900 global media workers who signed an open letter this week condemning Israel’s role in the deaths of journalists in Gaza.
The letter sparked controversy by also slamming Western news outlets for not being “clear-eyed” about the Jewish state’s “repeated atrocities against Palestinians.”
“We are renewing the call for journalists to tell the full truth without fear or favor. To use precise terms that are well-defined by international human rights organizations, including ‘apartheid,’ ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘genocide,'” the letter says, asserting that “contorting our words to hide evidence of war crimes or Israel’s oppression of Palestinians is journalistic malpractice and an abdication of moral clarity.”
Alex Riggins of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Kori Suzuki, a new hire at public station KPBS, may be the only San Diego signatories of the 775-word letter published Thursday.
“I believe that journalists deserve to work freely without being targeted by violence, particularly state-sponsored violence,” Riggins told Times of San Diego in response to queries.
Riggins, a U-T staffer since 2018, added:
Journalists in the U.S. deserve to cover protests without being attacked by police. Journalists in Mexico deserve to uncover crime and corruption by political figures without fear for their lives. Jamal Khashoggi did not deserve to die at the hands of the Saudi government. Evan Gershkovich deserves to be freed from Russian captivity. And Palestinian journalists deserve to be protected from the Israeli military.
Suzuki, a recent graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, covers South Bay and Imperial Valley.
He said via email: “I mourn … our fallen colleagues in the Gaza Strip and sincerely hope the Israeli military and government will act decisively to ensure the safety of the many brave journalists who continue to report in the region. A free and independent press is never more important than when information is scarce and lives are at stake.”
Riggins didn’t inform his U-T bosses about joining the letter, saying: “I felt no need to do so while signing a letter urging the protection of journalists, which should be an uncontroversial stance.”
U-T editor Lora Cicalo didn’t respond to a request for comment. But KPBS spokesperson Heather Milne said in a statement:
KPBS trusts our journalists to put aside their personal beliefs when it comes to covering the news for our community. At the same time, a newsroom with diverse lived experiences and perspectives helps us hold ourselves accountable to considering the full context of stories. Each day our team of journalists approach their work with integrity — seeking to tell the truth with fairness and accuracy. For more than 60 years, KPBS news has proven we are a trusted and award winning news organization.
I asked Riggins, a San Diego State University graduate who covers courts and federal law enforcement, whether the public might question his objectivity.
He said he wasn’t objective when it comes to the deaths of journalists.
“I know … that you’re asking about objectivity toward the larger conflict, but that’s the truth. No one would question my objectivity if I signed a letter stating ‘We condemn Russia’s killing of journalists in Ukraine.'”
Riggins continued:
So why should they question my credibility or objectivity in signing this letter? The simple fact is that even before the most recent events in Israel and Gaza, Israel had a horrendous record of killing journalists. In May of this year, the Committee to Protect Journalists published a report finding that since 2001, members of the Israel Defense Forces had killed at least 20 journalists, and did so with impunity.
Now in the last month, Israeli politician and former defense minister Benny Gantz has threatened to treat journalists like terrorists; journalists and their families are being killed by bombs dropped on their homes in Gaza; Israel deliberately targeted journalists in Lebanon, killing Reuters’ Issam Abdallah and injuring several others; and Britain’s Channel 4 captured an Israeli soldier firing toward its cameraman in a press vehicle. Any journalist who cannot denounce this clear pattern of violence against his or her colleagues is a coward.
The letter signed by 900 current and former media workers — including 13 from the Los Angeles Times — mostly focused on the dozens of Gaza journalists killed by Israeli bombing since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
“As reporters, editors, photographers, producers, and other workers in newsrooms around the world, we are appalled at the slaughter of our colleagues and their families by the Israeli military and government,” the letter says.
As of Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists counted 35 slain Palestinian journalists and media workers — as well as four Israeli journalists killed by Hamas and one in Lebanon.
“This deadly toll is coupled with harassment, detentions and other reporting obstructions in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and beyond,” said CPJ.
But Don Harrison, editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World and a politics writer for The San Diego Union from 1972 to 1980, was critical of the open letter.
“In what way is there moral clarity when the Oct 7th mass murder by Hamas is barely referenced?” Harrison wrote in response to a request for comment. “It seems to me these particular journalists have chosen to vilify Israel, while excusing Hamas.”
Riggins is unapologetic. (He signed a similar open letter in June 2019.) But he praised his fellow local signatory.
“I was proud to see a fellow San Diego journalist when I looked through the list of those who signed and saw Kori’s name,” he said. “I don’t know Kori, but it tells me a lot about his character that he signed the letter and was unafraid to list the outlet he works for.
“And I was also proud to see my name among a list of many journalists I admire, respect and look up to. I believe that our stance is correct, righteous and uncontroversial at this very moment, even before the benefit of hindsight will clarify that for others.”
But a note appended to the letter Friday said: “Two journalists asked to have their signatures removed Nov. 10 at the request of their employer, the Associated Press. Those signatures have been removed.”
