Reina-Marie Loader

The focus and scope of the Journal of Media and Rights actively seek to engage with the more complex and often controversial human rights topics of our times where they intersect with media representation. As observed in the overview of the journal’s description, it engages with:

This editorial thus functions as a respectful reminder of our responsibility as media scholars and/or media-makers to speak up for the protection of any child engulfed by conflict – wherever in the world that might be. According to the United Nations, the ‘killing and maiming of children during conflict is one of the six most grave violations’ identified by the first resolution on children and armed conflict (adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council in 1999, cf S/RES/1261, 1999). However, when it comes to the situation in Gaza, many media outlets (broadcasters, production companies, and publishers alike) hesitate, perhaps not surprisingly, before taking a firm stance on this issue – presumably for fear of being branded antisemitic, pro-Palestinian, or not objective.

There are, however, exceptions. One of the most recent examples is the film The Voice of Hind Rajab (Ben Hania, 2025), which premiered on 03 September 2025 at this year’s Venice International Film Festival to a record-breaking standing ovation of 24 min. It also received significant media attention as prominent filmmakers such as Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix came onboard as executive producers in support of the film’s awareness-raising intentions. The film’s director, Kaouther Ben Hania, emphasised the responsibility of filmmakers to tell powerful stories that cut through ‘the noise of breaking news or the forgetfulness of scrolling’, highlighting cinema’s ability to ‘preserve memory’ and ‘resist amnesia’ (Rubin 2025). Hania’s film tells the true story of Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old girl who was killed in January 2024 by the blast of an Israeli tank as they were fleeing the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza. She initially survived the shelling and called emergency services while trapped in the car surrounded by her dead relatives. After prolonged intense negotiations, an ambulance from the Red Crescent was allowed access to the area to save her. But they never reached her. Despite international appeal and outrage, rescue attempts were blocked with Israeli officials denying knowledge of what happened. Twelve days later, her lifeless body was found still trapped in the car. The paramedics were discovered only 50 m away from her, evidently also killed by Israeli forces (Al Jazeera, Forensic Architecture 2024). The film is structured around the actual recording of Hind’s voice as she pleads with the emergency services to ‘stay with me’.

The war in Gaza started on 07 October 2023, when Hamas led an attack on Israeli civilians that resulted in the deaths of 1195 Israelis, while an additional 251 people were taken hostage. This indefensible act of violence by Hamas was met in retaliation that same morning, when the first Israeli airstrikes fell on Gaza. We are now 2 years on, with deaths still occurring despite the recently agreed ceasefire being in place. The situation is complicated even more by the fact that the release of hostages as part of the ceasefire agreement reveals further deaths of Israeli citizens. However, it is evident that over this 2-year period of conflict, the violence disproportionately shifted to civilians living in Gaza, as opposed to the Hamas perpetrators. The most recent figures published in July 2025 indicate that since October 2023, approximately 62,122 Palestinians have died because of the war, with 18,430 of these being children (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2025). There is also mounting evidence that journalists within the region (Palestine, Lebanon and beyond) were specifically targeted by Israeli forces, while other international journalists were restricted from reporting on the war and were often only allowed access under strict army surveillance (Reporters without Borders 2024). The war has been live-streamed throughout on social media, revealing that apart from deaths because of bombing, starvation and dysentery also added to the suffering inflicted on Gaza civilians. Under international law, targeting civilians and journalists is a war crime. What is more, restricting or impeding humanitarian aid also constitutes war crimes (cf. the Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols [United Nations 1949] as well as the ICC’s Rome Statute 1998).

Hania notes that at the heart of The Voice of Hind Rajab, is ‘something very simple and very hard to live with’:

In a world that can allow such cruelty against its most vulnerable, it is not surprising that telling stories coming out of Gaza is increasingly difficult, not just because of the risk to the filmmakers but also as a result of media politics cloaked in words of ‘impartiality’. One only needs to know the bare minimum of the production history of Kill Zone: Inside Gaza (recently aired on Channel 4, after having been dropped by the BBC) to understand the obstacles filmmakers and/or journalists face in simply getting Gaza stories to audiences. It should, in fact, be a simple equation: if children are blown up, starved and/or maimed, media outlets, politicians, and governments should act uniformly and not shy away from using expressions such as ‘genocide’ or ‘crimes against humanity’. Hania cannot accept such a world. And neither should we.