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This article examines the mediation of human rights in English-speaking media during the 2023/2024 Israeli war on Gaza, Palestine. It investigates the extent to which human rights are effectively or ineffectively represented, depending on how the media cover the death and suffering of civilians. A central focus is the media’s portrayal of civilian suffering as defined under International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The way media coverage addresses the deprivation of civilians’ rights can have significant ethical and practical implications, potentially either mitigating or exacerbating human loss. Using critical discourse analysis, this study explores the BBC’s coverage of the politics of de-civilianization in Palestine. Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine is seen an effort to stretch the boundaries of IHL, eroding the concept of civilians as protected persons under IHL. Understanding how media frame these acts of Israeli settler colonialism in their reporting is crucial, as the representation of events can either uphold or undermine the notion of justice, a fundamental human right. The media are expected to promote ‘hydraulic’ human rights, meaning they should contribute to the cumulative process of empowering the vulnerable and the weak until their rights are realized. The article questions the extent to which the BBC’s coverage of the 2023/2024 war on Gaza supports or undermines the human rights situation in Palestine. It argues that human rights can be compromised by biased media coverage and, paradoxically, by seemingly unbiased coverage that claims to be ‘objective’. The application of objectivity by major English-speaking media outlets, including the BBC, may inadvertently disadvantage the weak. Although objective media coverage aims to provide a balanced representation of all sides, subtle editorial practices, such as ‘transediting’ conducted by ‘journalators’, can marginalize certain voices, ultimately suppressing the human rights of vulnerable populations, particularly civilians.
Mahmoud Alhirthani (Fri,) studied this question.