Valerie Zink, a Canadian freelance photographer, said Monday she resigned from Reuters after eight years, accusing the outlet of promoting “Israel’s propaganda.”
Zink, who covered Canada’s prairie provinces, posted a photo of her cut-up Reuters badge on X and claimed she could no longer work for the agency because of its “enabling” of “the systematic assassination of 245 journalists in Gaza” by Israeli forces. (RELATED: Israel Moving Forward With Gaza City Occupation Despite Proposed Ceasefire)
“By repeating Israel’s genocidal fabrications without determining if they have any credibility — willfully abandoning the most basic responsibility of journalism — Western media outlets have made possible the killing of more journalists in two years on one tiny strip of land than in WWI, WWII, and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and Ukraine combined, to say nothing of starving an entire population, shredding its children, and burning people alive,” Zink wrote.
I can’t in good conscience continue to work for Reuters given their betrayal of journalists in Gaza and culpability in the assassination of 245 our colleagues. pic.twitter.com/WO6tjHqDIU
— Valerie Zink (@valeriezink) August 26, 2025
More than 245 journalists have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack sparked the war with Israel, according to The Independent.
Zink, who previously worked as a medic in the West Bank after joining the Palestinian solidarity movement, accused Reuters of amplifying “baseless” claims that Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, killed by Israeli forces Aug. 10, was a Hamas operative. She also pointed to the Monday death of Reuters cameraman Hossam Al-Masri in an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza, saying Western media was “directly culpable for creating the conditions in which this can happen.”
“I have valued the work that I brought to Reuters over the past eight years, but at this point I can’t conceive of wearing this press pass with anything but deep shame and grief,” Zink wrote in closing.
Reuters did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment. The outlet said in a statement on X that it was “devastated” by Al-Masri’s death and was “seeking more information from Israeli authorities” about the strike.
— Reuters Press Team (@ReutersPR) August 25, 2025
Reuters and the Associated Press also released a joint statement Monday condemning the attacks and urging the Israeli Defense Forces to investigate. The outlets called on Israel to grant independent journalists safe, unrestricted access to Gaza and to uphold obligations to protect press freedom.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday on X that Israel “deeply regrets” the “tragic mishap” at Nasser Hospital and that authorities were conducting a full investigation.
President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he was “not happy” about the incident.
“I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to see it,” the president said. “At the same time, we have to end that whole nightmare.”