Who pays, who frames: inside Israel’s trip for Filipino media

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

ILOILO CITY — Several media organizations have raised ethical concerns over a recent Israeli government-sponsored trip for selected Filipino journalists, urging colleagues to weigh carefully the implications of accepting such invitations.

The weeklong visit to Israel from Aug. 6 to 12, 2026, was organized and fully sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which covered travel and accommodation expenses.

Participants shouldered only their own pocket money. At least 19 Filipino journalists joined the delegation.

The ministry said the initiative aimed to “foster goodwill and strengthen diplomatic ties by providing media practitioners with firsthand exposure to Israel’s dynamic media landscape, technological innovations, and geopolitical environment.”

The program included meetings with Israeli officials and journalists, visits to media organizations, and activities focused on the country’s history, culture, and society.

Media groups criticized the state-sponsored trip, pointing to the heavy toll of the war on journalists and media workers in Gaza.

They called on Filipino journalists to uphold ethical standards and to stand in solidarity with Palestinian media workers.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded 192 journalists killed since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023. At least 184 of them were Palestinians killed by Israel.

Israel has barred international news organizations from entering Gaza independently since the war began, allowing access only on escorted military embeds, a restriction that major wire services and broadcasters have repeatedly protested.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines on Aug. 10 cited its ethical guide on media junkets, which discourages journalists from accepting all-expense-paid trips intended to build goodwill or encourage favorable coverage.

The group questioned the propriety of accepting sponsored trips from Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza and allegations of violations of international humanitarian law.

The union said journalists and newsrooms should reject offers that could influence coverage or raise questions about whose interests a journalist is serving.

“We ask fellow journalists to uphold ethical practice, report on the (International Humanitarian Law) violations of Israel and its partnership with the Philippine government, and stand in solidarity with media workers in Palestine by demanding that Israel stop its brazen assault on press freedom and committing genocide on the Palestinian people,” it said.

The Filipino Freelance Journalists’ Guild also expressed concern over the junket, which it said was presented as a cultural exchange and an opportunity for Filipino journalists to see Israel beyond news headlines.

The guild noted, however, that the trip was funded and organized by the Israeli government, raising questions about the independence of reporting produced through such access.

“How independent can reporting be when it is sponsored by a government with a direct stake in the story? What stories get told, and whose voices get amplified, when access comes with an agenda attached?” it said.

“But there’s no such thing as a free lunch: to accept a ‘free’ trip from a state carrying out a documented genocide, and treat it as business as usual, is itself a form of complicity — intellectual, if not moral,” the guild added.

South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice in December 2023 accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, and the court has since ordered provisional measures. Israel rejects the accusation, and the case remains pending.

The guild said journalists should distinguish between grants and fellowships that support independent reporting and sponsored trips that could function as public relations opportunities.

It also called for clear disclosure of sponsorship in any coverage resulting from such trips.

The Journalism Studies Association of the Philippines, meanwhile, said journalistic independence requires more than a claim of editorial autonomy, particularly when journalists are offered benefits that may create conflicts of interest or cast doubt on their professional integrity.

The group cited provisions in the ethics codes of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Philippine Journalists’ Code of Ethics, and the Photojournalists Center of the Philippines, which caution journalists against accepting gifts, favors, free travel, or special treatment that could compromise — or appear to compromise — their independence.

A curated itinerary

Information obtained by the Daily Guardian showed that the weeklong trip combined conflict-related visits largely centered on the Israeli experience of the Oct. 7 attacks with cultural, religious, diplomatic, and tourism activities.

The journalists visited Israeli communities affected by the Hamas attack, including the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of concertgoers were killed, the car cemetery in Tkuma, and a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip.

They also went to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial and museum, as well as Jerusalem’s Old City, the Western Wall Tunnels, the Good Samaritan site, the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and the Dead Sea.

The program further included activities involving Shabbat traditions and visits to Christian sites in Jaffa.

The itinerary also featured stops highlighting coexistence and minority communities, such as meetings with Druze and Bedouin representatives, a visit to the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, and a tour of Jaffa that emphasized its Christian heritage.

The program likewise highlighted Philippines-Israel relations through Israel-Philippines Friendship Day, meetings with the Filipino community, and a stop at a monument to former President Manuel L. Quezon.

The monument commemorates Quezon’s Open Door policy, under which the Philippines admitted more than 1,200 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in the late 1930s.

The delegation also met with Israeli Foreign Ministry officials and Dana Kursh, Israel’s ambassador to the Philippines.

Other activities focused on Israeli media, technology, and society, including a visit to i24NEWS, meetings with Israeli journalists, and a tour of a high-tech company.

The itinerary lists no visit to Gaza and no meeting with Palestinian journalists or communities.

Journalists defend participation

Some journalists who joined the delegation pushed back against criticism that accepting the invitation automatically compromised their independence.

Monsi Alfonso Serrano of Philippine Business and News said participation in a government- or embassy-organized media visit did not necessarily mean surrendering editorial independence.

In a statement, Serrano said his publication had joined media and study visits organized or facilitated by governments, embassies, and private organizations in other countries, adding that hosts had not dictated what they should write or what questions they could ask.

“I take offense at what I consider an irresponsible, reckless, and unfounded characterization of journalists who accepted an invitation to participate in a study visit to Israel,” he said.

Serrano argued that journalists should ultimately be judged by their reporting rather than by assumptions about their motives.

“Our duty is to find the truth, understand the facts, ask difficult questions, hear different perspectives, and report what we independently observe and verify. And sometimes, that requires being on the ground,” he said.

Redempto Anda, publisher and editor in chief of Palawan News, acknowledged concerns about the limitations of the visit.

He said the journalists were not given scripts or told whom they could interview, but noted that the program remained a curated itinerary.

“It’s a curated itinerary, and curated means someone chose the frame before we arrived. I can tell you what we are free to ask but can’t tell you about what we’ve not seen,” he said.

Anda argued that while the Israeli government funded the trip, the ethical question should also consider whether journalists were required to produce favorable coverage and whether they were free to question their hosts.

He said participants were not asked to submit stories for review or approval and were repeatedly told there was no expectation of favorable coverage.

He added, however, that the deaths of Palestinian journalists and the broader toll of the war should remain central to any reporting produced from the trip.