French TV Channel TV5Monde reprimanded journalist of Algerian origin Mohamed Kaci because he dared to ask a question to an Israeli military spokesperson Olivier Rafowicz about the targeting of the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza by the IDF. Needless to say, controversy ensued.
The live interview was streamed at the channel last Wednesday, when Kaci asked if Israel will take into consideration the Humanitarian Emergency in Al-Shifa hospital, especially in light of the photographs emanating from the news feeds which verify the catastrophic situation at that hospital, despite claiming to have intelligence proving that Hamas is using it as a military base.
The Israeli Army Spokesperson showed visible anger in his response, voicing that Israel is a “democratic country” which “respects humanitarian law” and “human rights,” adding that the Jewish country is “only” defending its own citizens–Jewish, Christian, and Muslim ones–against “a fascist movement,” and the Tsahal is responding accordingly in attempting to neutralize Hamas.
The journalist then compared the Israeli actions to Hamas ones, which both kill civilians and in particular, children. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
TV5Monde released a statement saying that the interview was intended to be about “the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip,” that journalistic standards were not respected–especially the comparison of the Israeli army to Hamas, which is condemned by several states as a terrorist organization–and that the interview did not end in accordance with current standards of antenna control, but rather, was “cut” for the aforementioned reasons.
Immediately following the release of the statement, a large-scale solidarity campaign was launched on social media platforms in support of the Algerian journalist.
Many colleagues expressed their support for Kaci, such as French journalist Rosa Moussaoui, who tweeted that the other victim of war is the truth. “Our responsibility as journalists is not to roll out the red carpet for military propaganda by relaying on “facts” that we are unable to verify,” she added.
Furthermore, Lebanese journalist Pierre Abiy Saab tweeted that the TV5Monde statement amounts to a public scolding of one of its own journalists for asking a valid question to an army representative who was profiteering off the crimes of his “entity” (meaning Israel).