Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to shut down news network Al Jazeera following the passage Monday of a sweeping law allowing the government to ban foreign networks perceived as posing a threat to national security.

Al Jazeera Media Network, which has produced dogged, on the ground reporting of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, slammed the decision in a statement, vowing it would not stop the network from continuing its “bold and professional coverage.”

Blocking Al Jazeera “marks an alarming escalation, and Israeli efforts restrict the freedom of the press and further limit the access that citizens of the world have to the daily realities in Israel and Palestine,” Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir told CNN.

The White House also called reports of the move to shutter Al Jazeera “concerning.”

  • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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    8 months ago

    Yeah, honestly, every honest journalist is a security threat to the current Israeli Regime, so they’re basically declaring war on the news as a whole.

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The problem for Isrel is this - when the Apartheid-regime banned something, they banned it. You couldn’t get hold of it or find it on radio - it was easy for them. It was the 80s - I remember because I was there.

      The Israelis want to “ban” something anybody in Israel with the shittiest free VPN can access - while giving Al Jazeera free press and credibility in the process.