Kathmandu: Journalists of Kathmandu gathered independently on Monday evening at the Patan Durbar Square to express their solidarity and support for the journalists of Gaza and to condole the death of more than 70 Palestinian journalists murdered in the last two-and-half months. The candlelight vigil included portraits of 22 of the murdered journalists.
“We journalists of Nepal denounce the Government of Israel’s killing of more than 70 Palestinian journalists of the Gaza Strip over two[1]and-half months of its war with Hamas,” says the statement signed by a group of prominent Nepali journalists. “More journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023 than all the journalists killed worldwide in the previous 12 months. Many of the murdered Gaza journalists also lost their family members to targeted bombardments, and those fortunate to survive have lost close relatives,” the statement says.
The statement further states that Gaza’s media persons have sought to inform the world of the genocide as they themselves suffer without shelter, separated from their loved ones, facing ever-present threat of bombardment, and searching for food and water like the rest of the isolated population. “The state of the journalists’ mental health can only be imagined, as they cover the carnage amidst constant fear of the missile strike or sniper’s bullet, reporting the mass murder of innocent children, women and men, and the displacement of a people who were first uprooted as far back as 1948,” the statement says. “From Kathmandu, we express our fellowship with the besieged journalists of Gaza and wish them strength to overcome all hardships as they provide witness to genocide.”
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