This is how the agreement between the Israeli army and the media works. The CNN case

In recent days there has been a lot of talk about the fact that today Israel does not allow independent access to journalists and that newspapers that want access to the Gaza Strip must sign a 12-page document, accepting a series of conditions imposed unilaterally by the Israeli army. How exactly does it work and what does accepting these conditions mean?

All international newspapers operating in Israel must meet the conditions imposed by the Censor of the Israeli Armed Forces, which requires that a series of topics are banned from being covered.

Furthermore, from 7 October onwards, with the war in Gaza the restrictions have intensified and anyone who wants to enter the Strip cannot talk about the meetings and decisions of the security cabinet, cannot leak information on the hostages, talk about the weapons requisitioned by the fighters from Gaza, and much more.

Foreign journalists can only enter Gaza following Israeli troops, under the observation of military commanders in the field. And, above all, all articles and images must be approved by the IDF (this does not always happen but sometimes, especially in recent months, this is the case).

The case of the American broadcaster CNN, one of the various international newspapers to have signed this “agreement”, is emblematic in explaining how it works. All CNN journalists who write about Israel and Palestine (regardless of where they are located) have always been required to submit that content to the station's central office in Jerusalem before it is published.

This means that CNN's media coverage (whose reach extends across the globe) has been at least reviewed and, in some cases, even shaped by editors-in-chief of the Jerusalem bureau operating in the shadow of the IDF military censor.

But there is more: CNN, following the outbreak of the war in Gaza, also sent its journalists a sort of handbook to follow with precise directives and indications to use, or avoid, for the editorial group's articles. CNN even hired a former soldier who worked in the IDF spokesperson's office as an authorized field reporter.

So, just to be clear, according to CNN which operates under the near-total control of the Israeli military, Israel's raids on the Strip are to be described as “explosions” until confirmed by the IDF.

As The Intercept found in a long investigative work on the influence exercised by Israel on the media as a bargaining chip to gain access to Gaza, expressions such as “war crimes” cannot also be used. CNN has ended up at the center of several controversies for how it has covered the conflict over the war so far.

In an escalation of censorship and self-censorship on the part of the authorities and the media respectively, as if that were not enough, last November the IDF Military Censor issued a directive in English in which he asks the media to “subject to censorship all material concerning the activities of the defense and security forces prior to their publication”. Thus, in the first 50 days of the war alone, over 6,700 articles and reports were partially or completely censored in Israel.

The Repubblica case: the editorial line (pro-Israel) of the newspaper directed by Maurizio Molinari has caused a lot of discussion in Italy. Repubblica also signed the 12-page document to enter Gaza, as admitted by the newspaper itself. Which is not a crime, but a choice, like the one made by various other international media.