https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-media-are-covering-up-british-spy-flights-for-israel

Britain’s obedient defence correspondents are refusing to report a story of clear public interest in the middle of a genocide.

Published in collaboration with The National

Britain’s mainstream media have not carried out a single investigation into the extent, impact or legal status of the more than 500 surveillance flights over Gaza that the RAF has carried out since December 2023.

The Ministry of Defence continues to insist that the operations, carried out by Shadow R1 aircraft based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, are designed purely to assist with the discovery of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023.

It appears that Britain’s obedient defence correspondents have no appetite to challenge this or even to raise the slightest concern about the legal or ethical implications of providing intelligence support to Israel in the middle of a genocide.

Yet thanks to dogged work by campaigners, independent journalists and pro-Palestine MPs, we know both that the flights are continuing to operate (as they did even throughout the ceasefire) and that spikes in the number of flights have coincided with especially deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The lack of curiosity on the part of mainstream media is perhaps not surprising but it is deeply troubling.

…

Out of 993 stories on the “defence review” in UK media on 2 June, a tiny handful took the time even to acknowledge the existence of significant public opposition to increases in defence spending, particularly at the expense of cuts to public services.

The vast majority of published criticism of Labour’s defence plans come from the Tories or military voices arguing that “this is too little, too late” or that it isn’t clear where the money will come from. There is, apparently, no space for hard news content that investigates whether increased defence spending is either effective nor necessary.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media’s continuing silence on RAF spy flights over Gaza is a flagrant abdication of their stated responsibility to ask tough questions of military planners.

Far from holding power to account, mainstream media – through their silence and meekness – are allowing the government to get away with murder in Gaza.

See the original article at https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-media-are-covering-up-british-spy-flights-for-israel