A coalition of countries established to defend media freedom struggled to formulate a response to Israel’s killing of six Palestinian journalists in Gaza last month, emails reveal, with members of the group missing a deadline to join a statement condemning violence against media.The Media Freedom Coalition did eventually issue a statement denouncing violence against journalists in Gaza on August 21, nearly two weeks after an Israeli drone strike killed four Al Jazeera journalists, including well-known correspondent Anas al-Sharif, and two other media workers.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe coalition, which includes 51 member countries, did not mention the journalists by name in its statement, but decried the “deliberate targeting” of media workers and called for the investigation and prosecution of those responsible.Emails obtained from Sweden’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs provide a new insight into the challenges the coalition faced formulating a joint response to Israel’s targeted killing of media workers amid the competing views of its members.Al Jazeera obtained the emails from the Swedish government, which is a member of the coalition, under a freedom of information request.While the Media Freedom Coalition’s secretariat asked member countries to respond by midday on August 20 if they wished to be included in the joint statement, only 16 did so by the deadline, the emails show.In emails to the secretariat hours before the cut-off time, Swedish foreign affairs official Christina Linnarud wrote in an email that it “might be difficult” to meet the deadline and requested m …
