RTÉ: Get off the fence and report accurately and ethically on genocide in Palestine

That means:

1. Not framing this as a 'war' between two belligerents, but as a one-sided genocidal assault on 2.3 million defenceless civilians in an occupied and besieged territory. RTÉ gives the impression that Israel is pursuing a military objective, and civilian casualties are just collateral damage. Yet Israel has targeted civilians to an extent unseen since World War II.

2. Call this what it is. Hundreds of genocide scholars and legal experts have called the year-long violent assault on Gaza, which has claimed at least 40,000 and as many as 200,000 lives, a genocide. One of them, Raz Segal, called it “A Textbook Case of Genocide”. The International Court of Justice is currently deliberating on a case brought by South Africa against Israel under the UN Genocide Convention and already ruled that the charge of genocide is plausible. Yet RTÉ refuses to call this a genocide or even to discuss whether that term applies. By stark contrast, just six weeks into the Ukraine war, which in nearly three years has cost an estimated 11,743 civilian lives, one of RTÉ’s top radio presenters hosted a discussion on her show about whether Russia was guilty of genocide.

3. Report on the unprecedented targeting of journalists by Israel. According to the International Committee to Protect Journalists, Israel has killed at least 134 journalists in Gaza, many alongside their families. RTÉ has both a professional and ethical obligation to report on and condemn the murder of journalists and their families in Gaza. 

4. Report on the unprecedented targeting of hospitals, schools, universities and every form of essential civilian infrastructure. Israel has destroyed every university in Gaza, attacked hundreds of schools, obliterated the health system, bombed refugee camps, and tortured prisoners, including children. RTÉ has a duty to identify and describe such actions as war crimes.

5. Report from within Gaza in collaboration with brave Palestinian journalists who risk their lives to tell the world what is happening there. RTÉ's correspondents are based in Israel and thus comply with the Israeli Military Censor (see below), and have no access to Gaza unless embedded with the Israeli military. As a result, they do not report on the multiple war crimes committed by Israeli forces (e.g., massacres, abductions, withholding of food and medical aid) which have been thoroughly documented by the United Nations, Amnesty International and others.

6. Reveal to listeners and viewers that reports from news agencies such as AFP and Reuters, which alongside IDF press statements are RTÉ's main source of information in relation to Gaza and the West Bank, are pre-approved by the Israeli Military Censor. This violates RTÉ's own principle of independence ("We are independent from political, commercial, and other influences.")

7. Stop repeating Israeli government narratives, while failing to provide context on the occupation. Despite the Israeli government’s track record of fabrication and disinformation, RTÉ frequently privileges their narrative. It presents their statements unchallenged, while casting doubt on information provided by Palestinian sources. RTÉ also fails to provide adequate context on Israel’s long history of oppressing the Palestinians.

8. Report on Israeli crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank. In 2023 alone, more than 500 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. More than 200 of them were killed before 7 October. By failing to report on the escalating violence of settler attacks, administrative detention, medical neglect in prisons, solitary confinement, forced confessions under torture, house demolitions, and theft of property, RTÉ helps to maintain the false impression that the violence began with the Hamas attack on October 7.   

9. Platform Palestinian voices at least as much as Israeli ones. RTÉ frequently features interviews with Israeli government sources, including Ambassador to Ireland, Dana Ehrlich and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In most cases, they’re allowed to present their views unchallenged by a pro-Palestinian perspective. RTÉ should balance this by interviewing well known Palestinian advocates such as Salman Abu Sitta, Omar Barghouti, Mohammed El Kurd, or Noura Erakat, as well as members of Palestinian-Irish families.

Mothers Against Genocide and Social Rights Ireland, the two groups that drafted this letter, raised these same points with you last December and requested a meeting to discuss RTÉ’s coverage of the Palestinian genocide. You did not respond to that request. We ask that you do so now.