CPJ slams Israel for baseless accusations against killed Palestinian journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged the Israeli regime to cease labeling journalists killed by its forces as “terrorists,” calling for a prompt, independent international investigation into the killings.

“Even before the start of the Israel-Gaza war, CPJ had documented Israel’s pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without producing credible evidence to substantiate their claims,” the CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna said on Wednesday.

“Smear campaigns endanger journalists and erode public trust in the media. Israel must end this practice and allow independent international investigations into the journalists’ killings.”

Since the beginning of the Israeli campaign of death, destruction and genocide in Gaza in October, the regime has used questionable and, at times, contradictory evidence to label certain journalists Israeli troops have killed members or suspected members of “militant organizations.”

Before the Gaza war, the CPJ’s 2023 “Deadly Pattern” report also detailed examples of five unsubstantiated claims of terrorism or militant activity against journalists killed by Israeli forces between 2004 and 2018.

As of August 14, 2024, the CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 113 journalists and media workers were among the more than 40,000 killed since October, making it the deadliest period for journalists since the CPJ began collecting data in 1992.