Israeli Media Watchdog That Suggested Gaza Freelancers Were Coordinating With Hamas Clarifies It Was Just ‘Raising Questions’

AP Photo, Fil

HonestReporting’s Executive Director Gil Hoffman made clear this week that his organization’s article suggesting that several major media outlets had employed photojournalists connected to the horrific Oct. 7th Hamas attack on Israel was only “raising questions.”

The Associated Press’s David Bauder reported that Hoffman “admitted Thursday the group had no evidence to back up that suggestion. He [Hoffman] said he was satisfied with subsequent explanations from several of these journalists that they did not know” of the attack ahead of time.

One of HonestReporting’s key accusations in their Wednesday article was that the Israel-Gaza border seemed to be “breached not only physically, but also journalistically” – implying that media organizations may have known about the attack before it happened.

The article included this paragraph of “ethical questions” raised by the group:

What were they doing there so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning? Was it coordinated with Hamas? Did the respectable wire services, which published their photos, approve of their presence inside enemy territory, together with the terrorist infiltrators? Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and The New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically.

“They were legitimate questions to be asked,” Bauder quoted Hoffman as saying. Bauder added that “despite the name ‘HonestReporting,’” Hoffman told him “we don’t claim to be a news organization.” HonestReporting is a pro-Israel NGO and media watchdog that also offers educational materials and “Missions to Israel” for those interested.

Hoffman added that “some people with an agenda” took HonestReporting’s questions multiple steps further. “They acted as if we were stating facts instead of asking questions. We raised questions and it led the media outlets to clarify the truth. Great, that’s what we do.”

“The report by the group HonestReporting, however, had serious ramifications at a time of war,” Bauder noted, adding:
It led two Israeli politicians to suggest the journalists be killed. Several of the world’s biggest news organizations — CNN, The New York Times, The Associated Press, and Reuters — issued statements Thursday denying they knew about the attack ahead of time.

CNN and the Associated Press issued statements cutting ties and distancing themselves from freelance photographer Hassan Eslaiah whom HonestReporting and Israel’s Amit Segal identified as being present with Hamas during the attack. “Hassan Eslaiah, who was a freelance journalist working for us and many other outlets, was not working for the network on October 7th. As of today, we have severed all ties with him,” CNN said in a statement.

“The New York Times said that Yousef Masoud, whose photographs of an Israeli tank captured by Hamas were used by the newspaper and AP, did not know. His first photographs that day were filed 90 minutes after the attack began,” Bauder noted of another journalist HonestReporting mentioned.

The New York Times forcefully denied the suggestion that it employed anyone with a connection to the Oct. 7th attack or had advanced knowledge of the massacre.

“The accusation that anyone at The New York Times had advance knowledge of the Hamas attacks or accompanied Hamas terrorists during the attacks is untrue and outrageous. It is reckless to make such allegations, putting our journalists on the ground in Israel and Gaza at risk,” wrote the Times in a statement, adding:

We also want to speak in defense of freelance photojournalists working in conflict areas, whose jobs often require them to rush into danger to provide first-hand witness accounts and to document important news. This is the essential role of a free press in wartime. We are gravely concerned that unsupported accusations and threats to freelancers endangers them and undermines work that serves the public interest.

But as Bauder explained many were quick to use HonestReporting’s article for their own purposes and made statements discrediting all journalists working in Gaza. “The distinction between the “press” and Hamas in Gaza is extremely vague. All “journalists” in Gaza are either propagandists for Hamas or threatened by them. There is no press freedom in Gaza,” wrote Ben Shapiro on Twitter.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded to HonestReporting’s article, saying, “These journalists were accomplices in crimes against humanity; their actions were contrary to professional ethics.” Benny Gantz, a former Israeli opposition leader and member of the war cabinet, added, “Journalists found to have known about the massacre, and still chose to stand as idle bystanders while children were slaughtered – are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such.”