Press freedom group The Committee to Protect Journalists is reviewing how to identify and record journalists killed in war zones.
The move follows the Committee to Protect Journalists incorrectly naming fighters as dead reporters in its database of the Israel-Gaza war after Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad published obituaries revealing individual combatants previously listed as journalists. Members of the media, especially war correspondents, are protected in war zones under international law if they are not actively participating in hostilities.
“CPJ has always been clear that we do not include anyone in our datasets if there is evidence of their involvement in fighting or incitement of imminent violence,” Judy Ginsburg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. “This is consistent with international humanitarian law, which considers journalists affiliated with non-state actors to be civilians, provided they are not directly participating in hostilities.”
As the obituary was published, the press freedom group said that Hamas and PIJ acknowledged that some of its fighters previously classified as “journalists” killed in the Gaza war zone were in fact combatants. As a result, the Committee to Protect Journalists removed eight names from its casualty database in Gaza because they “participated in the fighting.”
An additional 12 people were removed from CPJ’s victims page because investigations indicated they either were not journalists after all, did not die while on assignment as a journalist or media worker, or survived an attack after being reported missing. As of June 25, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that the number of journalists and media workers killed by Israel in Gaza and in Israeli detention centers since October 7, 2023, reached 209 individuals.
The review, expected to conclude in July, will evaluate all remaining names on lists of “dead” journalists to ensure they were not in combat at the time of their deaths, Ginsburg said. The goal is to protect journalists and media workers active in war zones.
“The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns in no uncertain terms the defamation of fighters as journalists or media workers, or the misuse of the ‘journalism’ badge,” Ginsburg added. “Such actions endanger every journalist who legitimately attempts to report.”
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