Sobh Media Center urges UN to designate June 16 as day honoring journalists killed by Israel

In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Sobh Media Center has urged the United Nations to officially designate June 16 as the ‘International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to Victims of Terrorism against the Media’.

Affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) World Service and headquartered in Tehran, the Sobh Media Center expressed its solidarity with oppressed journalists and their families across the globe for unmasking tyrants despite heavy odds.

“An attack on the media is an attack on human awareness itself. There is no need to prove that the crimes of Israel constitute a flagrant violation of conventions and international laws that mandate the protection of journalists under all circumstances,” reads the letter, which has been posted on change.org and has already garnered more than 100 signatures.

The letter underscores that the calling of journalism “is to deliver the message.”

“The blood of 300 martyrs in Gaza and Lebanon in the past 20 months, soon to be joined by the blood of 12 martyred media workers in Iran and hundreds of free journalists across the world, will only hasten the decline toward the occupiers’ inevitable fate,” it notes, referring to targeted attacks on journalists in Gaza, Lebanon, and more recently, Tehran.

The attack on the IRIB news building took place on June 16 in the middle of the US-backed Israeli war of aggression against the Islamic Republic, resulting in the martyrdom of three IRIB staffers, including a senior news editor.

On Sunday, the Sobh Media Center hosted a commemorative ceremony for martyred journalists, which was attended by their families, foreign guests and other journalists, where the letter addressed to the UN chief was unveiled and signed by many attendees.

The letter highlights high-profile cases such as Ghassan Kanafani, Rachel Corrie, and Shireen Abu Akleh, who were killed by the Zionist regime for exposing crimes against Palestinians.

“Whether assassinated in secret while working, like Ghassan Kanafani; crushed alive under bulldozers before the world’s eyes, like Rachel Corrie; or openly targeted during live reporting, like Shireen Abu Akleh, the fate of many journalists has been marked by violence,” it noted.

The letter further states that despite the instruments of oppression at its disposal, the regime has “failed to prove the legitimacy and security of its occupation to the awakened consciences of the free peoples of the world and the responsible journalists who stand with them.”

It emphasizes that while the Israeli regime may kill journalists, it “can never kill the truth.”

According to the letter, the regime functions through a system rooted in “brutality and intimidation” to reinforce its illegitimate existence, showing no regard for moral or humanitarian boundaries.

“It has never refrained from employing any terrorist or criminal methods to eliminate its opponents—to such an extent that neither hungry children waiting in food lines, nor pregnant women, nor the elderly, sick, or disabled can feel any semblance of safety,” the letter stated.

You can sign the change.org petition here.

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