The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), renowned in the West for its press freedom advocacy, classified his ‘type of death,’ confusingly, as “dangerous assignment.” But he was eating breakfast at home, not out on assignment. After two years of tracking Israel’s journalist killings, this was CPJ’s rule, not the exception: 85-88% of journalists killed in Gaza are classified as “dangerous assignment” deaths1.
This includes over 60 journalists killed in their homes alongside their families. And despite Israel’s killing of hundreds of journalists, CPJ has only classified 21 journalist deaths as “murder,” or targeted killings.
… “For at least the first year and a half of the genocide, for CPJ to consider a journalist to be murdered, Israel has to come out and smear them, and say they targeted them for this reason or in that context,” said Anan Quzmar, a former volunteer with Palestine Journalist Syndicate (PJS), a trade union based in Gaza that was in frequent contact with CPJ. “In any other case, CPJ chooses to ignore the reports of their journalist colleagues in Gaza.”
The American and European media establishment has placed the Committee on a pedestal as the final word on press freedom worldwide. Yet, CPJ’s “meticulous research” and “reliable data” have helped minimize the full scope of Israel’s campaign to kill Palestinian journalists rather than expose it.
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