Attention to the Unseen

Margaret Sullivan writes: The numbers alone are dreadful. Journalists are being killed in the Israel-Hamas war at the rate of more than one every day since 7 October – at least 53 so far, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. This has been the deadliest period for journalists in the 30 years since the New York-based organization began keeping these dire statistics. But, of course, it’s not all about the numbers. There’s also the reality that the…

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The Guardian reports: A leading western journalist who has long been considered one of Germany’s top independent experts on Russia received at least €600,000 (£522,000) in undisclosed offshore payments from companies linked to an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, leaked files have revealed. Hubert Seipel, an award-winning film-maker and author, was paid money in instalments, which documents suggest was to support his work on two books he wrote that chart Putin’s rise to power and offer portrayals described by many…

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The Guardian reports: The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has reportedly asked Qatar to moderate Al Jazeera’s coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas, amid concerns within the Biden administration that the channel is inflaming public opinion and heightening the risks of a wider conflict. Blinken raised the satellite news channel’s coverage with the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, according to the website Axios, which said the US’s top diplomat had disclosed the request in…

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NBC News reports: A U.S. journalist has been detained in Russia, her employer said, the second such case since the war in Ukraine started. Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual Russian American reporter with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was detained in the southwest Russian city of Kazan on Wednesday while awaiting the return of her passports, her employer said Thursday in a statement. RFE/RL said Kurmasheva, who is based in Prague, has been charged with failure to register as a foreign…

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The Washington Post reports: Over the years, NPR has relied on Anas Baba to be its eyes and ears within Gaza. This past week was no exception. The Palestinian producer interviewed civilians seeking shelter from Israeli airstrikes at Gaza City’s main hospital, where hallways were crowded with the wounded and dying. Later, he called in an eyewitness account of young children traveling on foot for dozens of miles in an attempt to evacuate the city. The reporting took “a lot…

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Politico reports: French prosecutors are investigating the potential poisoning of former Russian state TV journalist turned Kremlin critic Marina Ovsyannikova after she was suddenly taken ill in Paris this week. Ovsyannikova reportedly called for help on Thursday afternoon “because she had collapsed outside her home in the 6th arrondissement and feared poisoning,” a spokesperson with the Paris Criminal Court said. The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation into the incident and police were reportedly examining her apartment…

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Semafor reports: MSNBC has quietly taken three of its Muslim broadcasters out of the anchor’s chair since Hamas’s attack on Israel last Saturday amid America’s wave of sympathy for Israeli terror victims. The network did not air a scheduled Thursday night episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show on the streaming platform Peacock. MSNBC also reversed a plan for Ayman Mohyeldin to fill in this week on the network for host Joy Reid’s 7 p.m. show on Thursday and Friday. Mohyeldin,…

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