UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s new report argues that the destruction of truth has become integral to the destruction of the Palestinian people. The report, “Truth Under the Rubble: Media in the Time of Genocide,” documents the killing of nearly 300 journalists and media workers in Gaza since October 2023, Israeli state censorship and incitement, and the role of Western media and digital platforms in reproducing Israeli narratives.
Drop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous spoke with Albanese, an Italian international lawyer who has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. They discuss what she calls “mediacide,” Israel’s killing of journalists including Drop Site contributor Hossam Shabat, incitement on Israeli TV, bias in Western coverage, and the New York Times’ response to her report.
Albanese has faced sustained backlash for her work. When she presented the report to the UN General Assembly on Monday, the Israeli and US representatives called her a “liar,” a “fraud,” and a “lunatic,” and the chair asked speakers to focus on the report’s contents. The US, Israel, and several European governments opposed her reappointment last year. Soon afterward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed economic and travel sanctions on her, citing her efforts to push the International Criminal Court to investigate US and Israeli officials and companies. Albanese, who is unpaid in her UN role, says the sanctions have cut her off from banking, and that her US-citizen daughter could commit a felony simply by having financial dealings with her. Her family is now suing the Trump administration.
Read the full UN report: https://docs.un.org/A/81/249
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0:00 Intro: “Truth Under the Rubble”
1:15 Israeli and US reps attack Albanese at the UN
3:35 Why a report on the media?
8:30 What is “mediacide”?
10:10 Silencing the witnesses: Israel’s killing of journalists
14:00 Information as Israel’s “eighth front”: censorship and platforms
19:10 Why killing journalists is a war crime
22:40 Incitement on Israeli TV and international law
24:40 Western media bias in coverage of Gaza
28:20 The New York Times responds to the report
31:50 What US sanctions mean for Albanese and her family
36:05 Documenting Gaza as resistance against colonial erasure
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