After months of self-review, the Committee to Protect Journalists still lists more than half its slain Gaza “journalists” with terror ties, even after cutting some names and putting others back on.
An independent review by Israeli media watchdog HonestReporting found that 102 of the 191 names left on the New York-based group’s casualty roster still have demonstrable connections to terrorist organizations, despite a months-long internal audit meant to clean up the list.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that CPJ removed 19 terrorists and three other fake journalists, then reinstated four people previously cut for terrorism against Israel, leaving a database HonestReporting says remains heavily contaminated by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad links.
HonestReporting’s 138-page review concluded CPJ failed to finish the job it claimed to start after earlier Free Beacon reporting forced the group to reopen its books.
"Although the CPJ review removed almost two dozen individuals who participated in combat during the war that began on October 7, 2023, 53 percent of those still listed have terrorist ties, with CPJ failing to remove identified terrorists and even reinstating some to the database,"
That finding lands against CPJ’s own claim that Israel is responsible for the deaths of 191 journalists and media workers in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories since the war began.
CPJ announced a wholesale review in June after questions about the integrity of its Gaza list. The group initially said the work would finish in July. A confidential version of the audit went out internally on July 7. Public disclosure of findings did not come until late last week relative to the Free Beacon’s October 1 report.
The public audit is five pages. The auditor was not named. CPJ said the person previously worked for the organization and as a journalist in Gaza.
CPJ’s amended standard treats people as combatants if they hold active membership in a military or militant wing, or if they commit acts of violence. HonestReporting says CPJ did not apply that rule consistently.
Among the four reinstated names, HonestReporting found two with terrorist connections. Assad Shamlakh, HonestReporting reported, “was confirmed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to be a member of its Gaza Brigade's Al-Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa Battalion.” Mohamed Khaireddine “worked for the Hamas controlled and U.S. Treasury sanctioned outlet Al-Aqsa TV.”
Others never left. HonestReporting said Ibrahim Sheikh Ali, a platoon commander in the Central Brigade of PIJ’s Al-Quds Brigades, was merely shuffled between “media worker” and “journalist.” Ahmed Abu Mhadi, described as a fighter in the Northern Brigade of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was reviewed and kept.
"Other terrorists that remained on the list were simply shuffled around between the classifications 'media worker' and 'journalist,' such as Ibrahim Sheikh Ali, a platoon commander in the Central Brigade of PIJ's Al-Quds Brigades,"
HonestReporting also flagged Mohammad Abu Sharia and Mohamed Jamal Sobhi Al-Thalathini of PIJ’s Central Military Media Unit, retained despite notices published July 16 and August 14 identifying them as members of the organization.
In July, CPJ’s board voted 17-1 to affirm its definition of who counts as a journalist. Under that standard, outlets tied to militant groups can still qualify as legitimate journalistic organizations “provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect.”
The sole no vote came from the Fox News board representative. New York Times columnist and CPJ board vice chair Lydia Polgreen said the board “voted to affirm our definition of who is a journalist.”
CEO Jodie Ginsberg has framed CPJ’s determinations as blind to politics. On the group’s site she said decisions rest “on whether individuals meet our definitions of who we consider to be a journalist, not an individual's affiliation or views.”
HonestReporting rejects that posture as a refusal to face how Gaza’s media world actually works.
"Gaza's media ecosystem has been contaminated by proximity to Hamas and its allies. This is something CPJ simply refuses to admit despite being shown, repeatedly, to be complicit in helping the system to perpetuate while placing the blame on Israel."
In a statement to the Free Beacon, HonestReporting added: “It's time the CPJ properly examined the flaws in its own methodology, as no such self-examination or reflection appear in this audit.”
CPJ told the Free Beacon only that “all relevant information is available on our website.” The audit itself admitted the group needs to “improve its data handling and presentation and increase the searchability of its website CPJ.org.”
On the same Thursday CPJ doubled down on X, the Israel Defense Forces published a dossier on 170 supposed Gaza journalists it says were terrorist operatives. The IDF stated that people presented as innocent journalists “were, in fact, militants in the military wings of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and other terrorist organizations,” and that they “presented themselves as legitimate media professionals while serving terrorist organizations that regularly use propaganda and psychological warfare.”
The dossier includes people who at one time or another worked for Al Jazeera, Reuters, the Associated Press, CNN, the BBC, and other Western outlets. The IDF’s message to CPJ on X was blunt: “You might want to update your list.”
CPJ’s reply on the platform stayed on its long-running charge: “Israel has been targeting and killing journalists in connection with their reporting for decades, and this deadly pattern must end.”
HonestReporting’s breakdown of the remaining CPJ names is specific. At least 30 names still on the list were identified through “martyr notices.” Another 18 were designated terrorists by the IDF. Ten more were identified through family statements and unverified documents. Nearly 60 remaining names worked for media outlets affiliated with known terrorist organizations.
Under CPJ’s own logic, people can stay classified as journalists even if they belong to a terrorist organization, so long as they are not treated as members of its military wing or otherwise engaged in combat. HonestReporting says that carve-out is how the list stays stacked.
One name still on CPJ’s revised list is Anas al-Sharif. The IDF released documentary evidence it says shows he was an active Hamas soldier, including a photo of him hugging Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas commander and October 7 mastermind. Polgreen has called al-Sharif “a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist” who was “assassinated” by Israel and “a young man who had suddenly become the face and voice of the desperate people of his homeland, Gaza.” She said Israel had “no credible evidence” for its case.
That dispute sits inside a wider pattern of Western institutions absorbing contested Gaza press claims at face value. CPJ had already been thrust into the spotlight in May as a critical source for a Nicholas Kristof column alleging Israeli soldiers raped two Palestinian “journalists.” Nika Soon-Shiong, described as an anti-Israel board figure and daughter of pharmaceutical billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, publicly said she was kicked off the board during an argument over a Free Beacon article about the list.
Readers watching institutional fights over Israel policy will recognize the same pressure campaign in other arenas, including a federal court fight over deportations tied to anti-Israel activism. The through-line is not complicated: activist frames travel fast, verification travels slow, and casualty lists become political weapons.
Strip the rhetoric and the arithmetic is plain. CPJ still pins 191 journalist and media-worker deaths on Israel since October 7, 2023. HonestReporting says 53 percent of the people still on that list have terrorist ties. CPJ removed almost two dozen combat participants, then put some contested names back, and left scores of others in place under a definition its board locked in 17-1.
Ginsberg has publicly accused Israel of “smearing journalists” by revealing they are actually terrorists. HonestReporting’s counter is that CPJ keeps members of non-military wings of terrorist groups on the list and “has failed to issue an apology for spreading disinformation.”
That is the core failure. A press-freedom group that will not consistently separate combatants and terror-linked operatives from real reporters is not protecting journalism. It is laundering a wartime propaganda system and handing critics of Israel a padded body count.
Americans who want clean government and honest institutions have watched this movie before, from agency capture to cultural boards rewritten by politics, including drawn-out fights over who controls national museums and narratives. When gatekeepers redefine basic terms to protect their preferred story, the public gets fiction sold as fact.
Party civil wars over radical factions, including cases where Democrats themselves finally draw a line at anti-American extremes, show the same demand for accountability. CPJ’s audit was supposed to be that line. The roster that remains shows it was not.
If a group counts fighters and terror-media staff as fallen reporters, it is not cataloging press freedom. It is running cover for the people who bury it.