TeleSUR Rejects the Murder of Al-Mayadeen Journalists

During an attack in southern Lebanon on Monday afternoon, the Israeli occupation forces murdered Al Mayadeen journalist Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Al-Maamari. This attack was immediately condemned by Patricia Villegas, the president of teleSUR.

“We condemn this fact and stand in solidarity with our colleagues at Al-Mayadeen. More than 50 journalists and some of their families have been murdered by the Israeli army amid the genocide in Gaza. The world fails and remains silent,” she said.

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Previously, on November 13, when Israeli occupation forces expelled the Al-Mayadeen team from the West Bank, Villegas sent a letter to Ghassan Ben Jeddou, the chairman of the Al-Mayadeen Board of Directors. That letter is reproduced in its entirety below:

As if it were against ourselves, TeleSUR has felt the blow that has been dealt to freedom of expression and the free exercise of journalism, by closing and persecuting the West Bank team of the Al Mayadeen network that you lead.

These events do not happen at any time or under any circumstance. For 38 days we have witnessed the execution of a genocide against the Palestinian people, which has been reported by your brave collaborators from the scene of the events.

Being there, narrating in real time without euphemisms or montages, has generated in the occupier this action, which is contrary to international law and the rules that the world has given itself.

By silencing the work of your team, they seek to impose a single narrative that privileges some sources over others.

The action against your team, as well as the execution of journalists and their families, is a desperate attempt to silence the pain expressed by a dignified attitude, which humiliates the occupier.

Despite what they do, the world now rises up and does so because it has been possible to inform and denounce and because there is a world that resists just as there is a force that overwhelms. You, our friends from Al-Mayadeen, are part of the world that resists. We offer you our strength to continue.

May events like these become an infinite source of energy that keeps your entire team operating at their best, with the certainty of the importance of the work being done.

May the channel maintain, in a timely manner, the continuity of an informative coverage that, although tough, heart-wrenching, and at times unbearable from a human perspective, is absolutely necessary to expose everything that, as humanity, we are not allowed to do.

Every second of Al-Mayadeen's broadcast teaches us what should not happen while committing us to what is fair, true, and appropriate. It also focuses us on the path of the correct causes of history.

We send you and your team our hug of solidarity.

TeleSUR President Patricia Villegas.