Our weekly roundup of press freedom news, highlighting the latest attacks on journalists, their right to publish, and our right to know. Here’s the news for the week of May 9.
Israeli drone strike kills journalist Hassan Islayeh at Nasser Hospital
After months of incitement against him in Israeli media, prominent Palestinian field reporter Hassan Islayeh was directly targeted and killed by Israeli drone while he was receiving treatment in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, reports Middle East Eye.
Islayeh had been recovering from injuries sustained in a previous Israeli air strike last month that targeted a media tent near the same hospital.
Three years since the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh
It’s been three years since Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent Palestinian-American journalist, was killed by Israeli forces while wearing a blue press vest and covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The newly produced documentary “Who Killed Shireen?” claims to have identified the Israeli soldier who killed Abu Akleh on May 11, 2022 as 20-year-old Alon Scagio, who was later transferred to another unit and then killed by an explosive in 2024.
According to Committee to Protect Journalists it is the first time that a potential suspect has been named in connection with an Israeli killing of a journalist, as over 22 years, IDF killed at least 20 journalists and no one has ever been charged for these deaths.
Judge orders release of Rümeysa Öztürk, Tufts student detained over Gaza Op-Ed
Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk was released from ICE detention after a federal judge ordered her to be freed on bail, reports Zeteo.
“Her continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of people in this country who are not citizens,” Judge William Sessions said during the hearing.
She was detained by ICE on March 25 and her student visa revoked days earlier for cowriting an op-ed urging Tufts to follow student resolutions to acknowledge genocide in Gaza & divest from companies tied to Israel.
Freedom of the Press Foundation called on the Trump administration to immediately disclose information about Öztürk’s arrest.