Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Tuesday, Sep 09, 2025

‘Unbelievable’: Western media slammed for Akleh killing coverage

‘Unbelievable’: Western media slammed for Akleh killing coverage

Media outlets ignored Israel’s role in Abu Akleh’s death, according to social media users and commentators.

The killing of Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank has created an uproar as commentators and social media users criticise Western media outlets for “whitewashed” reporting that appeared to shy away from mentioning that Israeli forces had killed the seasoned reporter.

Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist who worked for Al Jazeera’s Arabic television channel, was hit by an Israeli live bullet on Wednesday morning, according to witnesses, as she covered an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

The news shocked Palestinians, for whom Abu Akleh has been a constant presence on Al Jazeera for 25 years.

But, despite showing respect for Abu Akleh’s career, many media organisations were careful to avoid implicating Israel in the killing, despite assertions by Al Jazeera and witnesses who were with her that Abu Akleh had been killed by Israeli forces.

As Western media began reporting the story, social media users criticised organisations for, as one Twitter user says, their “unbelievable” coverage of the story.

Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace, slammed the New York Times for a headline that said Abu Akleh “dies at 51”, without mentioning the cause of her death.

“Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper while reporting on an Israeli military raid of a refugee camp,” she tweeted.

“‘Dies at 51’. Unbelievable, NYT.”


Referencing the same headline, Bassam Khawaja, the co-director of NYU Law’s Human Rights and Privatization Project, tweeted: “‘Dies at 51’ is a really strange way to say a journalist was shot in the head.”


The New York Times also released a correction for “misstating” Al Jazeera’s statement on Abu Akleh’s killing, after initially reporting incorrectly that Al Jazeera had said Abu Akleh was killed in “clashes”.


The Israeli ‘narrative’


The Associated Press was also criticised for its reporting.

“AP reporting that the iconic Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh ‘was killed by gunfire’ is unethical journalism,” a Twitter account which uses the handle AimRabie, tweeted.

“She ‘was [not] killed’ by aliens, she was killed by Israeli forces. There should be repercussions for propagating ‘alternative facts’ about basic truths.”


Another user, Fatima Said, condemned the Associated Press’ choice of words and noted that the news agency’s own offices were bombed in Gaza by Israeli forces a year ago.

“Even in death, there’s no dignity or justice for Palestinians. A major news outlet describing a veteran journalist’s assassination at the hands of Israel as random ‘gunfire’,” Said tweeted.

“This is the same AP whose media offices were flattened with Israeli bombs last year.”


In May 2021, an Israeli air raid in the Gaza Strip demolished a tower that hosted many residential apartments and offices, including the bureaus of Al Jazeera and The Associated Press.

The attack, which was carried out after an initial warning, was part of Israel’s relentless 11-day offensive on the besieged enclave.

Kevin Gosztola criticised Western media outlets for the difference in their approaches to the conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine, and said that Abu Akleh was “owed coverage that doesn’t whitewash her death”.

“If a journalist was targeted and killed by Russian military forces in Ukraine, the US media would report it as an assassination and stir outrage,” he tweeted.

“Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered by Israeli soldiers. She is owed coverage that doesn’t whitewash her death.”


Speaking to Al Jazeera, Marc Owen Jones, an assistant professor of Middle East Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, said Israel has a track record of disseminating false information on social media and was attempting to “muddy the waters” surrounding Abu Akleh’s death.

“The Israeli state is very used to managing these crisis situations in which they kill Palestinian citizens or journalists,” said Jones. “So, what they have done is already had a narrative, and that narrative is that there’s ambiguity about the killing of Shireen. And in this case, there is a possibility that it could have been Palestinians.”

“We know this is implausible, however, this narrative was put out very early … If they can muddy the waters around the death of Shireen by possibly getting newspapers in the international sphere to suggest that she was killed by Palestinian, they have been successful.”

“And in reality, this is what happened, the Guardian newspaper in the UK and the BBC have already been very clearly about putting Israeli version of events very high up in their reporting of it.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
×