(July 3, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) on Thursday called on major news organizations to revisit their reporting based on casualty data from the Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a> (CPJ), after the press organization announced a review of its Gaza database following evidence that individuals it had identified as journalists were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a tainted tally, it\u2019s time to critically cover the Committee to Protect Journalists and help protect journalism from CPJ,\u201d Camera said in a press release.<\/p>\n The CPJ announced<\/a> on June 25 that it was conducting a full review of its database of media workers killed in the Gaza Strip after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad mourning notices confirmed that several individuals listed as journalists were operatives in the terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n CAMERA said the revelations raised serious questions about reporting by major international media outlets that had relied on CPJ\u2019s casualty figures and allegations without sufficient scrutiny.<\/p>\n Among the outlets cited by CAMERA were CBS, the BBC, Reuters, The Washington Post, CNN, The Associated Press, PBS, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and The New York Times.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the CPJ that has long put journalists at personal risk by enabling terrorists to masquerade as journalists,\u201d said Tamar Sternthal, director of CAMERA\u2019s Research and Analysis Media Department.<\/p>\n She argued that news organizations had too often accepted CPJ\u2019s findings without independently verifying the identities of those listed as journalists.<\/p>\n Hamas\u2019s control of Gaza\u2019s media<\/p>\n CAMERA also criticized interviews in which CPJ officials accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists, saying the allegations went unchallenged by interviewers.<\/p>\n \u201cMultiple leading media outlets had featured, often without qualification or challenge, CPJ\u2019s now-discredited data on 2025 fatalities, which described terrorists as journalists killed on assignment,\u201d CAMERA said.<\/p>\n \u201cAmong the media outlets that devoted space last February to CPJ\u2019s tainted tally are CBS, which further inflated<\/a> CPJ\u2019s inaccurate figures; the BBC, which CAMERA has repeatedly called on<\/a> to amend outdated<\/a> CPJ-sourced tallies; Reuters<\/a>, which gave CPJ a platform to accuse those citing links between supposed journalists and Hamas of \u201cdeadly smears\u201d; and The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSince then, media outlets have repeatedly relied on the organization\u2019s dubious allegations and blatant libels. In April, MS Now\u2019s Antonio Hylton failed to challenge<\/a> CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg when she insisted on \u2018The Weekend Primetime\u2019 that \u2018Israel has deliberately targeted journalists\u2019 and that \u2018hundreds of journalists have been killed by Israel since the genocide in Gaza.\u2019 The same month, PBS\u2019s Nick Shifrin likewise neglected to challenge<\/a> CPJ regional director Sara Qudah, who alleged that Israel targets journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n CAMERA added, \u201cCPJ is a favorite in The New York Times\u2019 proverbial rolodex. It loomed large, for example<\/a>, in an August 2025 article that alleged \u201cthe deadly risks of reporting in Gaza could further stifle the amount of information coming out of the war,\u201d but that entirely ignored Hamas\u2019s total control of Gaza\u2019s media landscape\u2014including its successful casting of its terror operatives as journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n According to CAMERA, more than 100 media executives and senior journalists signed a February 2024 CPJ letter accusing Israel of attacking journalists while relying on casualty figures that are now under review.<\/p>\n In November 2023, Sternthal noted, CAMERA had suggested that CPJ change its name to \u2018Committee for the Protection of the Murderers of Journalists\u2019 over its refusal to describe Israelis massacred in their homes on Oct. 7 as having been \u2018murdered,\u2019 a term it freely uses elsewhere.<\/p>\n CPJ\u2019s board<\/p>\n She questioned whether the presence of senior executives from leading news organizations on CPJ\u2019s board created an inherent conflict of interest that discouraged critical coverage of the organization.<\/p>\n