Canadian Reuters photojournalist Valerie Zink has resigned after accusing the agency and other Western media outlets of “justifying and enabling the systematic assassination of 245 journalists in Gaza.”
Zink, who worked as a Reuters stringer for eight years with her photographs published worldwide, said she could no longer be associated with the agency.
She argued that Reuters had abandoned its journalistic duty by amplifying Israeli claims and ignoring the plight of reporters under attack in Gaza.
Explaining her anger in a social media post on Tuesday, she cited Reuters’ coverage of the August 10 killing of Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Sharif.
“When Israel murdered Anas Al-Sharif, together with the entire Al-Jazeera crew in Gaza City on August 10, Reuters chose to publish Israel’s entirely baseless claim that Al-Sharif was a Hamas operative – one of countless lies that media outlets like Reuters have dutifully repeated and dignified,” Zink said.
She added that Reuters’ failure to challenge Israel’s narrative had not prevented the agency from losing its own staff.
“Reuters’ willingness to perpetuate Israel’s propaganda has not spared their own reporters from Israel’s genocide. Five more journalists, including Reuters cameraman Hossam Al-Masri, were among 20 people killed this morning in another attack on Nasser hospital.
“It was what’s known as a ‘double tap’ strike, in which Israel bombs a civilian target like a school or hospital; waits for medics, rescue teams, and journalists to arrive; and then strikes again.”
Zink said the responsibility for such killings rested also with Western outlets that echoed official talking points without scrutiny.
She pointed to an assessment by Drop Site News journalist Jeremy Scahill, saying that “every major outlet – from the New York Times to the Washington Post, from AP to Reuters – has served as a conveyor belt for Israeli propaganda, sanitizing war crimes and dehumanizing victims, abandoning their colleagues and their alleged commitment to true and ethical reporting.”
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She argued that this dereliction of duty created the conditions for an unprecedented death toll among journalists.
“By repeating Israel’s genocidal fabrications without determining if they have any credibility – willfully abandoning the most basic responsibility of journalism – Western media outlets have made possible the killing of more journalists in two years on one tiny strip of land than in WWI, WWII, and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and Ukraine combined, to say nothing of starving an entire population, shredding its children, and burning people alive,” she said.
She also accused Reuters of betraying Al-Sharif even after his Pulitzer-winning work for the agency.
“The fact that Anas Al-Sharif’s work won a Pulitzer Prize for Reuters did not compel them to come to his defence when Israeli occupation forces placed him on a ‘hit list’ of journalists accused of being Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants,” she said.
“It did not compel them to come to his defence when he appealed to international media for protection after an Israeli military spokesperson posted a video making clear their intention to assassinate him following a report he did on the growing famine. It did not compel them to report on his death honestly when he was hunted and killed weeks later.”
Zink said she now felt only grief and shame in carrying a Reuters press pass.
“I have valued the work that I brought to Reuters over the past eight years, but at this point I can’t conceive of wearing this press pass with anything but deep shame and grief,” she said.
She added that she would dedicate her future work to honouring Gaza’s fallen reporters. “I don’t know what it means to begin to honour the courage and sacrifice of journalists in Gaza – the bravest and best to ever live – but going forward I will direct whatever contributions I have to offer with that front of mind.”
At least 20 people, including five journalists, were killed on Monday after Israeli airstrikes hit al-Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, Palestinian health officials confirmed.
According to The Guardian, those killed include Hussam al-Masri, a Reuters cameraman; Mariam Abu Dagga, a freelance reporter with the Associated Press; Mohammed Salam of Al Jazeera; and Moaz Abu Taha, who worked with NBC. Another Reuters journalist, photographer Hatem Khaled, was seriously injured.
Footage broadcast by al-Ghad TV showed civil defence workers and journalists in bright orange vests rushing to recover al-Masri’s body when they themselves came under fire. In their final moments, the rescuers raised their hands for protection before being struck.