Beware of first reports. Wars breed confusion. Information in the early days is often wrong.
Within seconds of an explosion at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, multiple reports hit websites with conflicting information about who was to blame. The Israelis said it was the result of an errant rocket launched by Islamic Jihad; Hamas said it was a strike carried out by Israeli Defense Forces. President Biden later weighed in with his own official account in support of the Israeli version.
Meanwhile, people have taken to the streets all over the world.
Conflicting reports, early in the war, had also been issued around Rafah Border Crossing, the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip — a critical entry point for humanitarian assistance and a vital escape route for those fleeing this conflict.
For a brief time, Americans and others trapped inside Gaza were encouraged to escape the fighting by heading to the exit — the Rafah Border Crossing — only to find it closed. Imagine being in a crowded theater with gunfire around you and being told to head for the exit, only to find it blocked.
Reporting is hard. Journalists are doing their best to be accurate and timely, but confusion is a fact of life in war particularly in an age of social media, with opinions flying, facts grounded and information platforms bombarded with competing angles and dimensions as news changes quickly.
It is also difficult for reporters to fly into the middle of a crisis zone on short notice, as many did on Oct. 7 as soon as word spread of a surprise attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists. You want to get the news first, but more importantly, you want to get it right. And the presence of social media results in people looking for viewpoints and news that reinforce existing biases and narratives.
Covering war is not only hard — it can be deadly.
Journalists who cover conflict often wear bulletproof vests with big, bold letters that say, “PRESS.” But it is no guarantee that they will not be caught in the crossfire. Watch them weave and dodge bullets, run for cover, find shelter behind walls — and often continue to report events so that we can better understand what is happening.
As of Oct. 18, at least 19 journalists have been killed in the conflict, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
On Friday, an Associated Press photographer, Issam Abdallah, was killed while covering clashes on the border between Israel and southern Lebanon, where other journalists were also wounded.
Yaniv Zohar, who worked as a video journalist for the Associated Press, diedat the hands of Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, along with his wife and two daughters. He was 54.
All of this is why we need open, independent professional media and the ability to be able to identify and protect reporters in a conflict.
The Commission for Human Rights in Europe, an independent and impartial non-judicial institution, lays out the rationale. “Journalists on duty in the battlefield often face extreme danger, sometimes similar to that faced by members of the armed forces.” For these reasons, journalists covering conflicts are afforded protection under international humanitarian law.
The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols set out rules to protect people who are not taking part in the fighting and those who can no longer fight it. It specifies that journalists who are engaged in professional missions in areas of armed conflict must be considered as civilians, and much be protected if they take no action adversely affecting their status as civilians.
It is also vital for journalists to be well-trained professionals. Not everyone with a camera or a cellphone is a journalist. Media credentials and accreditations are needed to cover conflicts.
(In the case of the war in Ukraine, a controversy has erupted over media access, especially for photojournalists who want to go to the front lines but face stringent media rules by the government seeking to protect them.)
Journalism also involves judgment and skill. You are interviewing people often at the most sensitive moment of their lives. War correspondents come home with their own stories, injuries and traumas, and their families bear witness.
We are living in a time when media freedom has reached a new low, with more and more countries restricting press, according to Freedom House. As we watch war unfold over the next days and weeks, remember that behind every image is a photographer, a reporter, an editor, a producer. Be thankful they are there to bring you the news.
Tara D. Sonenshine worked at ABC NEWS and Newsweek. She is currently the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.