Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni

Palazzo Chigi

Piazza Colonna 370

00187 Rome 

Italy

 

CC: 

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani 

Minister of European Affairs, Tommaso Foti

Minister of Economy and Finance, Giancarlo Giorgetti

 

September 30 2025

Re: Immediate suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement 

 

Dear Prime Minister,

We, the undersigned press freedom and journalist organizations, are writing to urge the Italian government to call for a partial or full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement in order to protect journalists in Gaza and to advance our collective ability to access independent reporting. 

Israel is engaging in the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that press freedom organizations have ever documented. Palestinian journalists are being threatened, directly targeted and murdered by Israeli forces, and are arbitrarily detained and tortured in retaliation for their work. Media infrastructure in Gaza is systematically destroyed, and censorship has been tightened throughout the West Bank, Jerusalem and Israel. Israel has also taken the unprecedented step of refusing international media independent access to Gaza. 

European public opinion on Gaza is changing, in part as a result of the reporting from Palestinian journalists on the ground. Their journalism–the stories, the personal accounts, and the images–has been a testament to the horrors suffered by the Palestinian people. It is imperative that all EU Member States continue to support Palestinian journalists as they carry out their work, while also advocating for international media–including Italian journalists–to have independent access to Gaza.

A sense of outrage is also mounting in the journalist community, including public actions attended by hundreds of Italian journalists  and a written appeal made by 32 Italian newspapers  addressed to the Italian government calling for journalist access to Gaza.  

EU Member States are increasingly in support of suspending certain trade-related provisions of the Association Agreement between the EU and Israel– which is now a formal proposal  made by the European Commission.

We kindly urge the Italian government to: 

• immediately and publicly express Italy’s support for the partial or full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and encourage other EU Member States to follow suit;
• strengthen the calls on Israel to immediately allow the urgent delivery of food, clean water, and medical supplies to all journalists in Gaza through protected humanitarian corridors; 
• strengthen the calls on Israel to end the blockade on foreign press entry into Gaza; 
• and robustly demand the independent investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the starvation and killing of journalists (in line with the 2015 Security Council Resolution 2222  on the protection of journalists in armed conflict).

This is a defining moment for Europe to defend its international reputation to uphold human rights and we call on Italy to take action.  

Undersigned:

ARTICLE 19

Association of European Journalists in Belgium

Committee to Protect Journalists

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom

European Federation of Journalists

Free Press Unlimited

IFEX

Index on Censorship

International News Safety Institute (INSI)

International Press Institute 

Media Diversity Institute 

Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT)

Ossigeno per l’infomazione, Ossigeno.info 

Reporters Without Borders

South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)

Spanish Federation of Associations of Journalists (FAPE)  

The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation

This statement was produced as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors, and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and candidate countries.