When the Network Goes Dark: The Hidden Infrastructure Behind Journalism in Gaza

When the Network Goes Dark: The Hidden Infrastructure Behind Journalism in Gaza

By Abdalsalam Mortaja

In Gaza, journalism depends on more than a reporter’s ability to reach the scene. Electricity, connectivity, functioning devices, and access to sources have become essential conditions for gathering, verifying, and publishing information.

Journalism begins before the story

A journalist receives a video from a witness. The footage appears to show the aftermath of an attack, but its location is unclear. The reporter attempts to contact the person who recorded it, search for additional images, compare accounts, and consult an editor. The internet connection fails. The phone battery is running low. The verification process stops before the story can be confirmed.

This is not simply a technical inconvenience. It is a disruption of journalism itself.

In Gaza, the ability to report has increasingly depended on resources that many journalists cannot reliably access: electricity, functioning telecommunications networks, working devices, and stable connections with sources and newsrooms.

Public discussions about journalism during war often focus on the dangers journalists face, the information they gather, and the stories they publish. Less attention is given to the infrastructure that makes these activities possible.

Yet a journalist cannot verify information without access to evidence, communicate with a source without a functioning channel, or deliver a report to an audience without some means of transmission.

When that infrastructure breaks down, the consequences extend far beyond the newsroom.

The digital foundations of reporting

Modern journalism relies on an interconnected system of physical and digital resources. A smartphone may function as a camera, recorder, notebook, research tool, and communication device. An internet connection allows journalists to contact witnesses, consult public records, compare reports, and transmit material to editors.

Electricity keeps these tools operational. Digital platforms connect individual reporters to wider networks of information. Editorial systems allow newsrooms to review, correct, and distribute reports.

These resources are often treated as ordinary features of professional life. In a conflict environment, however, their availability cannot be assumed.

Damage to communications infrastructure, electricity shortages, displacement, and interruptions to connectivity can break the chain linking observation to publication. A journalist may reach the scene but be unable to send footage. A reporter may receive an eyewitness account but be unable to ask follow-up questions. An editor may possess the technical ability to publish a story but lack the information required to verify it.

The distinction matters: having a story to tell is not the same as having the means to report and publish it responsibly.

When verification becomes harder

Verification is among the most important functions of journalism, particularly during war, when information is contested, events unfold rapidly, and misleading material can circulate widely.

Journalists must establish where an image was recorded, when an event occurred, whether a video has been edited or presented out of context, and whether independent evidence supports the claims accompanying it.

These tasks require time, access to sources, technical tools, and communication between reporters and editors.

When connectivity is interrupted, each stage can become more difficult. A witness may be unreachable. A second source may be impossible to contact. A journalist may be unable to search for earlier versions of a video or compare material published by different sources.

The absence of connectivity does not automatically make information false. Nor does the circulation of a photograph or video establish that every claim attached to it is accurate.

The challenge is that journalists may have less opportunity to establish what they can responsibly confirm.

This creates a difficult editorial choice. Publishing too quickly can amplify misinformation; waiting for complete confirmation may delay information that audiences urgently need. Responsible reporting requires journalists to communicate uncertainty clearly, distinguish confirmed facts from preliminary accounts, and explain when further verification is not yet possible.

The objective is not to lower verification standards because conditions are difficult. It is to adapt professional methods without abandoning those standards.

Disconnection creates unequal opportunities to report

Digital inequality is commonly discussed in terms of who owns a device or has access to the internet. Gaza raises a more demanding question: what happens when access exists intermittently, at considerable cost, or under conditions that make reliable use difficult?

A journalist may own a smartphone but lack a dependable electricity supply. Another may find a connection but be unable to sustain a video upload. A third may have access to digital tools but be unable to reach the people whose accounts need to be checked.

In each case, nominal access does not necessarily translate into practical capability.

This distinction has implications for news production. Journalists working under different infrastructure conditions may have unequal opportunities to investigate, corroborate, and publish information, even when they possess comparable professional skills.

It also has implications for media support. Providing equipment is important, but equipment alone cannot restore a reporting process if the electricity, connectivity, communication channels, and editorial support required to use it remain unavailable.

Supporting journalists therefore requires attention to the entire system in which reporting takes place.

The next divide: Artificial intelligence

The expansion of artificial intelligence adds another layer to this problem.

AI-assisted tools can help journalists transcribe interviews, translate documents, organize large collections of material, generate search terms, and identify leads for further investigation. Used carefully, these tools may reduce the time required for some tasks and help reporters work with information in different formats and languages.

But access to these capabilities depends on infrastructure.

Many AI services require a reliable internet connection, sufficient data, compatible devices, and sometimes paid subscriptions. Uploading large files or processing substantial amounts of information may be difficult for journalists whose connectivity is intermittent.

As newsrooms elsewhere experiment with increasingly sophisticated AI tools, journalists working under severe infrastructure constraints may face additional barriers to adopting them.

This does not mean that every journalist with reliable connectivity will use AI effectively, or that AI is necessary for every reporting task. Professional judgment, source assessment, and editorial accountability remain indispensable.

It does mean that discussions about the future of journalism should consider not only who has the skills to use new technologies, but also who has the practical means to access them.

In Gaza, this question deserves systematic investigation: how do electricity, connectivity, device availability, cost, and professional training shape journalists’ ability to use AI for reporting and verification?

Answering it requires evidence from journalists themselves rather than assumptions about their experiences.

What supporting journalism should mean

If infrastructure is a condition of reporting, media support must go beyond replacing individual devices.

News organizations and supporting institutions should consider several interconnected priorities.

First, journalists need practical access to functioning equipment and dependable charging options. Second, newsrooms need alternative communication arrangements for periods when conventional networks become unavailable. Third, reporters require methods for preserving notes, recordings, source information, and original media files securely when online systems cannot be reached.

Fourth, verification training should address low-connectivity conditions. Journalists need procedures for documenting the origin of material, preserving evidence, recording unresolved questions, and resuming verification when communication becomes possible.

Finally, AI training and support should reflect the conditions in which journalists actually work. Tools that depend on uninterrupted connectivity or expensive subscriptions may be unsuitable for some reporting environments. Evaluating alternatives should be based on their reliability, accessibility, security, and usefulness to specific editorial tasks.

None of these measures can eliminate the effects of war or guarantee that journalists will be able to work safely. They can, however, help media organizations identify the practical barriers that prevent reporting from continuing.

Journalism requires more than journalists

The experience of Gaza invites a broader understanding of what it means to protect journalism during war.

The ability to report depends on the people who gather and verify information, but it also depends on the systems that allow them to communicate, preserve evidence, and reach audiences.

When those systems fail, the consequences affect journalists, news organizations, and the public. Information may take longer to verify and distribute. Sources may become harder to reach. Corrections may struggle to reach the audiences who encountered the original claims.

These problems cannot be addressed by professional commitment alone.

Gaza also presents an important question for the future of digital journalism. As news production becomes increasingly connected to online services and AI-assisted tools, will technological progress expand journalists’ capabilities equally, or will it deepen existing inequalities between those who can reliably access these systems and those who cannot?

The answer requires careful research, sustained documentation, and attention to the working conditions of journalists themselves.

The starting point is simple: infrastructure is not separate from journalism. It is part of the material foundation on which reporting, verification, and public access to information depend.

A journalist may have the knowledge, experience, and determination to tell a story. But without the means to gather, verify, and transmit information, even the most important story can struggle to reach the public.