4 worldwide media shops have denied allegations that that they had prior information of Hamas’s October 7 assaults on southern Israel, after an article by pro-Israel media watchdog group HonestReporting questioned their work with Gaza-based freelance photojournalists.
Following the publication of the article by HonestReporting, which describes itself as “a charity group” with a mission to “expose anti-Israel media bias,” the Israeli authorities additionally demanded explanations from Reuters, The Related Press, The New York Occasions and CNN. .
In an article revealed on Wednesday, the web site identified that the October 7 presence of Gaza-based photojournalists within the border space violated by Hamas raises “severe moral questions.” It additional claimed that their presence “may have been coordinated with Hamas” and questioned whether or not the information media “accepted their presence in enemy territory.”
“Reuters categorically denies that it had prior information of the assault or that we recruited journalists into Hamas on October 7,” Reuters stated in response to the article and subsequent allegations by Israeli authorities officers.
Scoop: What had been @AP, @Reuters, @CNN & @New York times Freelance photographers from Gaza who might be visiting Israel on October 7? Coincidence or had been they a part of the plan? https://t.co/KcdXMd4DYF
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 8, 2023
“Reuters obtained pictures from two Gaza-based freelance photographers who had been on the border on the morning of October 7, with whom it had no earlier relationship,” the report stated.
“The photographs revealed by Reuters had been taken two hours after Hamas fired rockets throughout southern Israel and greater than 45 minutes after Israel stated armed males had crossed the border. Reuters employees journalists weren’t on web site on the areas referenced within the HonestReporting article,” Reuters added.
The assault on army posts and border communities killed greater than 1,400 individuals, most of them civilians.
Since then, Israel has launched an air and floor assault on Gaza, killing a minimum of 10,812 Palestinians to date, together with greater than 4,400 kids.
Israeli authorities spokesman Nitzan Chen stated in an announcement that Israel demanded explanations from the 4 information media relating to the HonestReporting article, saying that what the report had described “crosses each crimson line, each professionally and morally.”
The AP additionally rejected allegations that the newsroom had prior information of the assaults.
“The primary photographs that AP acquired from a freelancer present that they had been taken greater than an hour after the assaults began. There have been no AP personnel on the border on the time of the assaults, nor did any AP personnel ever cross the border,” the assertion stated.
“The AP’s function is to collect details about main information occasions around the globe, wherever they happen, even when these occasions are horrific and trigger mass casualties.”
The information company additionally stated it was “now not cooperating” with photographer Hassan Eslaiah, one in all 4 photographers who documented the assaults.
CNN has additionally lower ties with the photographer, who was pictured with Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.
In a tweet On Thursday, HonestReporting stated it isn’t accusing Reuters of collusion, however that it has “raised some severe moral points relating to information shops’ affiliation with these freelancers and has raised necessary and related questions that everybody deserves solutions to.”
Backlash from officers
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace stated it considered with “the utmost seriousness” the suggestion that journalists working with worldwide media had joined in overlaying the Hamas assaults.
“These journalists had been complicit in crimes in opposition to humanity; Their actions had been opposite to skilled ethics,” the report stated.
Former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon went additional, calling for the 4 photojournalists to be added to the listing “of contributors within the October 7 bloodbath” to be “eradicated” by Israeli safety providers.
Israel’s Inner Safety Service has introduced that it’ll remove all contributors within the October 7 bloodbath.
The ‘photojournalists’ who took half in documenting the assault might be added to that listing.
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 Danny Danon (@dannydanon) November 9, 2023
The New York Occasions, which works with Yousef Masoud, one other of the 4 photojournalists, referred to as allegations that the newsroom had prior information of the assaults “false and outrageous.”
“We additionally need to communicate in protection of freelance photojournalists working in battle zones, whose jobs typically require them to hurry into hazard to offer first-hand testimony and doc necessary information. That is the important function of a free press in time of struggle,” the newspaper stated in an announcement.
“We’re deeply involved that unsubstantiated accusations and threats in opposition to freelancers are placing them in danger and undermining work that serves the general public curiosity,” it added.
