By Zweli Martin Dlamini

The Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel have been slightly reporting about the Iran missiles attacks and surprisingly, most of their reports end by highlighting that “ there were a few injuries with no deaths” leaving the onus upon the reader to conclude whether the damage as seen in the videos could result to minor injuries in the residential areas particularly in the now missiles besieged city of Tel Aviv.

But in such situations, access to credible information is of paramount importance and world leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United States (US) President must understand that, access to information is a democratic right, people must know exactly what is happening around the world so that, they can plan for their lives particularly because, the war is influencing even food prices.

Whenever a top Government or military official is killed in Iran as the war escalates, the Iranian authorities does not hesitate to confirm the death within twenty (24) hours, we are being updated regarding the number of civilians killed through the Iranian State media.

But recently, United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blasted the Cable News Network (CNN) for reporting about the war in a manner that did not go down well with the President Donald Trump administration and clearly, the media is being censored or told to report in a manner that favours those who want to create a narrative suggesting that, they are winning.

But if Iran is an oppressive regime, let’s see Israel and the US who started this war upholding democratic principles, starting a war and then keep the people in the dark by censoring the media is against democratic principles particularly, the right to information.

Access to information is considered a fundamental human right and is implicitly part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted in 1948.