TEHRAN- For South African journalist Deshnee Subramany, the struggle for Palestinian press freedom is deeply personal. Sitting at her desk earlier this year, she was overwhelmed by a steady stream of devastating news: journalist after journalist killed in Gaza.

Anger turns into action

“I was angry,” she recalls. “By January 2024, more than 170 journalists had been killed. Today the number is well over 270. That’s not just a tragedy, it’s a massacre. And what shocked me most was that no editorial body in South Africa was saying anything.”

That silence compelled her to act. At 10 p.m. one night, fueled by frustration, she drafted a statement condemning Israel’s attacks and calling for solidarity with Palestinian journalists. Soon after, she and her colleagues launched Journalists Against Apartheid (JAA), an initiative that has since organized national vigils in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and South Africa’s pre-eminent journalism school, Rhodes University.

“We wanted to be clear: South African journalists will not stay silent,” Subramany explains. “If our editorial institutions won’t act, we will.”

She adds: “I am wondering about this. The Press Council doesn’t issue statements, but it is meant to work with editorial bodies. You can see in its About page, right at the bottom, it talks about its interventions in big tech. But its vision is for journalism beyond South Africa too. I think it speaks to how current institutions are not serving us anymore – like the UN’s processes.”

Lessons from South Africa’s apartheid past

Subramany’s activism is inseparable from her country’s history. Born in 1987, she grew up during the final years of apartheid and witnessed the fragile transition to democracy. That background, she says, shaped her sensitivity to injustice and censorship.

She recalls one story in particular: her reporting on Sharpeville, a township in Gauteng where police gunned down demonstrators during an anti-pass protest in the 1960s. Official records listed 69 victims, but survivors told her the real death toll was far higher.

“That experience taught me something crucial,” she reflects. “In situations of repression and genocide, we never truly know how many lives are lost. Records are manipulated, voices erased. The same is true today in Gaza. The world may never know the real number of journalists or civilians who have been killed.”

For Subramany, the parallels between apartheid South Africa and occupied Palestine are undeniable. Both, she argues, are systems of militarized control, racial segregation, and institutional silencing of dissent. “Even if Israel stopped bombing today, Palestinians would still face decades of rebuilding. Look at South Africa: thirty years after democracy, we are still recovering.”

Media silence and Western bias

If the brutality of Israeli airstrikes angers Subramany, the complacency of the media establishment infuriates her even more.

“South Africa has journalism schools, an editors’ forum, a press council — yet none of them spoke out when journalists were being massacred in Gaza,” she says. “That vacuum made me realize we needed an independent voice.”

Incidentally, the Sharpeville massacre was a key moment that led to the creation of the South African Press Council, highlighting its historical roots in struggles for accountability.

She also criticizes the Western-dominated global media landscape, which she describes as “middle-class, Eurocentric, and unwilling to confront its biases.”

In one recent controversy, South Africa’s public broadcaster suspended a freelance anchor who aggressively questioned an esteemed anti-apartheid figure for describing Israel’s actions as a holocaust. “It wasn’t journalism, it was harassment,” Subramany remarks. “But the fact that such incidents happen shows the pressure journalists face when speaking honestly about Palestine.”

The result, she argues, is a deliberate erasure of Palestinian voices. “Israel ensures foreign journalists can’t enter Gaza. It kills the local journalists who remain. And Western outlets, instead of protesting, censor themselves. That’s a global press freedom crisis.”

Israel’s narrative of “terrorist journalists”

One of the most disturbing tactics, according to Subramany, is Israel’s routine branding of Palestinian journalists as “terrorists.”

“You can’t just label people terrorists and then kill them without evidence,” she insists. “Killing journalists is a war crime. How do you justify 272 war crimes? You can’t.”

This strategy, she argues, is designed to create a media blackout. “We are civilians. We are the media. By killing us and denying access, Israel ensures nobody can report the truth. That is the point.”

The role—and failure—of international institutions

Asked about the role of organizations like the UN and the Committee to Protect Journalists, Subramany is skeptical.

“Institutions can only do so much,” she says. “But the UN has failed. If we are witnessing a genocide, why is there still a veto in the Security Council? Why are we allowing powerful states to block accountability?”

She notes the irony that South Africa, once a victim of apartheid, is now leading the charge at the International Court of Justice against Israel’s crimes. “It shows how far we’ve come, but also how weak global institutions remain. Unless the veto is abolished, justice will always be selective.”

“Media massacre” as deliberate strategy

Subramany and her colleagues have coined a stark phrase for what is happening in Gaza: a media massacre.

“This is not collateral damage,” she stresses. “It is a targeted campaign to wipe out a profession. Israel knows exactly what it’s doing. And we want them to know that we know.”

She warns that the implications go beyond Palestine. “If the killing of journalists is normalized, then no reporter anywhere is safe. Western journalists who stay silent should understand—this can happen to you too.”

“Every candle lit, every slogan shouted, every article published—it all tells Palestinian journalists: you are not alone.”
Solidarity from South Africa

Despite institutional silence, grassroots solidarity in South Africa has been powerful. JAA has organized vigils, screenings, and joint protests with the Palestinian Solidarity Commission.

At one rally in Cape Town, in a predominantly pro-Israel neighborhood, Subramany and her colleagues led the march. “That was a big moment for us,” she says. “To stand in that space, surrounded by our people, and say we refuse to be intimidated.”

In Johannesburg’s Mary Fitzgerald Square in January 2024, their vigil drew journalists who were supposed to be “covering” the event but ended up joining the movement. “Even those who couldn’t protest in person were writing about it, broadcasting it. They made sure the story was told.”

For Subramany, these acts of collective defiance are invaluable. “Every candle lit, every slogan shouted, every article published—it all tells Palestinian journalists: you are not alone.”

Risks, challenges, and a different South African context

Unlike colleagues in Europe or the U.S., Subramany says South African journalists face fewer risks for supporting Palestine.

“Our country’s stance is clear. We took Israel to the ICJ. There’s a long history of solidarity,” she explains. “That doesn’t mean there are no pressures, but I haven’t heard of people being punished for speaking out.”

Still, challenges remain. South Africa’s media industry is in crisis, with shrinking newsrooms, precarious digital platforms, and little support for investigative journalism. “The industry is losing people. That weakens our ability to tell stories that matter,” she warns.

Speaking truth, word by word

For Subramany, the duty of journalists everywhere is simple but non-negotiable: tell the truth.

“We are not allowed to lie. Every word matters. If you call something by the wrong name, you distort reality. So call it what it is: genocide, massacre, apartheid. Name the perpetrators. That’s our job.”

She acknowledges that such honesty may come at a cost. “If your newsroom doesn’t believe in the truth, you will face backlash. But then you have to ask: is that really journalism?”

“They must know they are not alone”

At the end of our conversation, Subramany returns to the people at the heart of this struggle: Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

“We don’t know what they can see of our protests, whether our statements reach them,” she admits. “But if they do, I want them to know this: they will never stand alone. South African journalists are with them, always.”

Her words echo the spirit of global solidarity that once sustained South Africa’s own liberation struggle. Today, as Israel wages war on media, that solidarity is more urgent than ever.
 

* * *Journalists Against Apartheid (JAA) is currently organized by journalists around the country. The core organizing team is Joséphine Kloeckner, Raeesa Pather, Shakirah Thebus, Samina Anwary, Aziz Younis, and Deshnee Subramany.