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5 posts total
Re-upping on all my platforms, because we cannot tone down our condemnation of this unprecedented slaughter of journalists. The apathy & indifference towards Israel's killing of Palestinian media professionals (130 since 7/10/23 per the IFJ), including among many prominent journalists, is a chilling indictment of our industry as a whole. Incredibly disturbed by the silence of friends and colleagues & those who cited "objectivity" for it. It has truly been an eye-opening year for journalism. THREAD: My visual investigation of a drone massacre of 30+ people in Ethiopia is the cover story for today's @thecontinent digital paper. In this thread, I'll outline how we determined the precise location of a drone strike that happened in a war torn area cut off from the outside world. The illustration by the amazing Wynona Mutisi (yay for commissioning artists, nay for soulless AI!) depicts the final moments as described by survivors, who were riding aboard an Isuzu truck when it was hit. As I explained yesterday, documenting atrocities in Ethiopia's war in Amhara is extremely complex, because journalists are banned from any sort of critical reporting, and the war torn areas where atrocities take place are often cut off from the outside world, with the government cutting off communications to conceal its abuses. As such, news of this specific atrocity, which took place in February 2024, took a few days to emerge. https://dair-community.social/@ZekuZelalem/113290316616549004  @ZekuZelalem @ZekuZelalem @thecontinent Thanks for sharing this important but difficult work with us. Well, since Nelson Mandela is trending these days...from the archives: Mandela's Ethiopian passport. In 1962, Mandela toured Africa in search of support for the anti apartheid armed wing of the African National Congress. In Ethiopia, he completed 2 months of a course in guerrilla fighting & military leadership. Granted Ethiopian citizenship under his bogus identity as "David Motsamayi," Mandela masqueraded as a journalist. His fake profession is indicated on his passport in Amharic (แแแ แ). Here's Mandela in Ethiopia (right) in 1962. Standing with him is Ethiopian army General Tadesse Birru, a veteran of the Ethiopian resistance wars during the Italian colonial army's 1935 invasion and subsequent occupation of Ethiopia ordered by fascist leader Benito Mussolini. General Tadesse Birru oversaw the entirety Mandela's military training. ๐งต Hey all! This is a new account, I'm still Zecharias Zelalem, freelance journalist and aspiring OSINTer providing news and analysis on the Horn of Africa for a variety of international media outlets. For the past year or so, I posted via @zekuzelalem@journa.host, but I've transitioned away from that instance. I'll be posting from this account from now on. After recent changes on the journa dot host instance, I had no choice but to set up elsewhere. Hope to continue exchanges and friendships here.  @ZekuZelalem@dair-community.social @zekuzelalem@journa.host Good to see at least one journalist thinking critically about the (to me) worrying consolidation of the media on Mastodon under one man who seems of rather slippery ethics. (I'm not sure why you moved but it's something I find to be worthy of concern in this age of disinformation and media manipulation.) When I left Twitter, I joined the Journa server primarily because it was run by journalists with verifiable credentials who were keen on creating a safe, clean space for journalists to interact free of the toxicity that was ubiquitous on Twitter. I'm still grateful to the likes of Evan Urquhart and Adam Davidson who administered the instance and never let us down in that regard. Journa was a refreshing change from what we had grown accustomed to, especially in the wake of the Musk takeover. |
Gregory's Server
Last year, ~1,500 journalists including myself, signed this open letter condemning Israel's killing of countless Palestinian journalists, as well as misleading framing of atrocities in Gaza as a whole.
In response, plenty of major newsrooms lashed out at their employees, forcing them to withdraw their signatures. Others signed on anonymously, fearing repercussions. All in all, the sentiments of shock and horror were not shared by everyone in journalism.
https://www.protect-journalists.com/