Looking beyond the headlines and getting to know people, stories, and backgrounds – these were the goals of our trip to Israel in September 2025. The trip was one of the highlights of the Fellowship program, through which we are promoting the work of young media professionals, this year on the topic of “Limitations of Reporting: Media in Times of War and Polarization”.

During the trip, our eight Fellows gained various insights into the Israeli media landscape. What laws protect the freedom of the press in Israel? What role does military censorship play in journalism? How do local media channels report on the war in Gaza? And what difficulties do Palestinian voices face in the Israeli discourse?

We addressed these and other questions in various roundtable discussions and debates with experts and journalists from different media outlets, such as Haaretz, Times of Israel, and The Seventh Eye. Another highlight was our visit to Makan (Arabic for “place,” “site”), the Arabic-language broadcaster of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. There, we talked about Makan's special role in the Israeli media landscape, the visibility of Arab-Israeli issues in Israel, and the coverage of the war in Gaza. In Jerusalem, we also visited the Supreme Court. In addition to taking an architectural tour, we discussed the institution's importance to the Israeli legal system and key court cases.

Particularly emotional and significant was our visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz, which had been attacked on October 7, 2023. There, we met with a resident who told us about the unfolding of the terror attacks in the Kibbutz and shared her personal story with us. Afterwards, we visited the site of the Nova Festival, where photos and personal stories commemorate those who were murdered. What resilience means – also for journalists – became the topic of the day.

Journalistic approaches, representation, and responsibility were the central themes of this trip. “It was impressive and inspired me to devote even more of my work to this region,” one of the Fellows summarized their experience.
Our trip showed the enormous challenges facing Israel and its media landscape, while also highlighting that fact-based and thorough journalism is essential in polarized times.