2025 United Nations International Media Seminar on Peace in Middle East, in New York, 1 December
‘Breaking Barriers: Navigating the Dangers and Complexities of Reporting from Gaza and the West Bank’
The 2025 United Nations International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East will take place on Monday, 1 December, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in Conference Room 6.
Organized by the United Nations Department of Global Communications, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 77/24 of 30 November 2022, this year’s seminar will focus on the theme “Breaking Barriers: Navigating the Dangers and Complexities of Reporting from Gaza and the West Bank.”
The opening ceremony will include statements by Melissa Fleming, Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications; Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations; and Coly Seck, Permanent Representative of Senegal to the UN and Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, will issue a message on this occasion.
This opening ceremony will be followed by a panel discussion that will examine critical issues including: the realities of being a journalist in Gaza today; insider/outsider perspectives in the reportage; maintaining journalistic integrity under pressure; the challenges of access; combating disinformation; and the responsibilities of regional and international media. The role of the international community in supporting journalists’ rights to operate freely and safely will be central in the discussion.
Panelists include Jodie Ginsberg, Chief Executive Officer, Committee to Protect Journalists, and Ibtisam Azem, Senior Correspondent, UN in New York, al-Araby al-Jadeed Newspaper. In addition, the panel will feature video messages from Wael Al-Dahdouh, Chief, Al Jazeera Bureau in Gaza; Tania Kraemer, Chair, Foreign Press Association; Haggai Matar, Executive Director, +972 Magazine; and Nasser Abu Bakr, Chairman, Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate.
The event will be streamed live on UN Web TV and will later be made available on demand. Arabic interpretation will be provided.
For any inquiries, please contact Yazen al-Saghiri at email: al-saghiri@un.org, cc: Shymaa el-Ansary at email: el-ansarys@un.org.