Mass killing of reporters a war crime – KC

“Impunity breeds impunity” Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC told the Irish Centre for European Law (ICEL) annual human-rights conference in the University of Galway.

This was most starkly evident in Gaza, the KC said, opening what she called a slightly off-script presentation that looked at the erosion of the rule of law through the lens of attacks on press freedom and transnational repression.

A board member of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Gallagher said that the state of Israel had killed at least 250 journalists since October 2023.

“That is more than the number of journalists killed in total in both world wars, in the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars combined,” she added for context.

“These are war crimes in plain sight, the targeted and indiscriminate killing of journalists committed deliberately or recklessly and at scale,” she said.

The KC added: “And, of course, by silencing Palestinian journalists whilst also blocking access to the West Bank by the international media, Israel is systematically silencing those who document and bear witness to the genocide.”

Gallagher said that this “unprecedented assault on press freedom” reflected longstanding impunity.

The 2023 report Deadly Pattern, named 20 journalists killed by Israel before 2023, deaths for which nobody has ever been held accountable, she said.

In parallel, the barrister said, there had been an increase in countries “using the long arm of the state to try to silence their critics, wherever in the world.”

However, she said, the states that committed these actions were not only not held to account, but were treated as allies by many across the European Union.

The KC argued that if Saudi Arabia been held accountable for the 2017 Riyadh Ritz-Carlton purge, subsequent events might not have happened.

“We now live in a world in which Saudi Arabia orders the dismembering of a US citizen, a Washington Post journalist [Jamal Khashoggi], in Turkey, in a Council of Europe country.”

Russia 'poisons its critics'

“Russia poisons its critics in London and in Salisbury.

“Journalists can be forcibly brought within jurisdiction by hijacking a Ryanair plane, as Belarus did to arrest one journalist a number of years ago, and in which Chinese shadow police stations operate in multiple countries worldwide, terrorising diaspora communities, including here in Ireland, in Capel Street in Dublin,” Gallagher said.

Transnational repression was not new, she said, “But what is new is the way it's being conducted in a systematic way and at such scale and with such sophistication,” she added.

The seven common tactics of transnational repression include direct physical attacks:

• Assassination attempts,
• Assaults,
• Disappearances and kidnappings,
• Physical surveillance of targets at home or work, and
• Online intimidation through spyware, abuse and threats.

Iranian female journalists are frequently targeted by fabricated pornographic images.

False pornographic image

One of Gallagher’s clients had a false pornographic image of her sent to her son's school.

“And of course that is designed to also say 'we know where your child goes to school, we know where you live’.”

Other repression methods include restricting movement through travel bans or passport cancellations, and enlisting other countries to pursue targets through mechanisms such as Interpol red notices or extradition requests.

Coerce dissidents

Authorities may also coerce dissidents by targeting family members in their home country.

Gallagher cited Iranian journalists living in Europe whose relatives were detained and pressured to contact them from custody, offering release in exchange for the journalist stopping their work or agreeing to spy for the regime.

A seventh tactic is infiltrating networks to obtain sensitive information, including through fake recruitment approaches and attempts to access privileged legal information.

China, Iran, Russia, and Saudi Arabia were the main states associated with transnational repression, Gallagher said.

She added that Israel was a new addition and that Turkey was an “enabler”.

And because journalists, dissidents and critics, some of them EU citizens, are being targeted in Europe, it is a European problem.

Two years ago, Iranian journalist, Pouria Zeraati, was stabbed at his home in London in broad daylight by men who had flown into Heathrow to commit the attack.

“They chose Good Friday because they knew it was a bank holiday, and they knew that the response from law enforcement would be sluggish,” Gallagher commented.

Gallagher flagged “a very, very dangerous” new tactic used in Sweden, where five teenagers went on trial in April for the attempted murder of an Iranian dissident.

“They were using organised crime. They are now reaching out to disaffected young teenagers across Europe.

“It's a growing Irish issue.

‘Some of the examples there [which] give you a flavour of how this is a here-and-now problem in Ireland," she said.

Aggressor states

The EU required an overarching strategy, the KC said, flagging “sensible” measures outlined in a recent report on the issue by German MEP Hannah Neumann. 

But Gallagher concluded: "It's vital that we get creative about the aggressor states.

“It's also vitally important that we get creative about the bag carriers and the states that facilitate this, and we have to hold to account the states who do nothing.”