Should AP, Reuters, CNN & the NYT Be Permanently Banned from Providing Coverage in Israel?

Should AP, Reuters, CNN & the NYT Be Permanently Banned from Providing Coverage in Israel?

Now that the intrepid media watchdog web site HonestReporting.com published an investigative report that offered cogent information that photojournalists from such leading news outlets as The New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters and CNN, joined Hamas terrorists on their brutal massacre on the morning of October 7 to document the bloody rampage with their cameras, news associations have leaped to their defense and complete denials of being part of these unspeakable Nazi-style atrocities are now running rampant.

The organization, which works to expose anti-Israel bias in the foreign press, raised weighty ethical questions in the investigation regarding the presence of those photographers alongside Hamas terrorists, as was reported by the Jerusalem Post.

The watchdog organization also wondered what these photojournalists were doing in Israeli territory so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning and asks whether their presence was coordinated with the Hamas terrorists. “Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically,” it said.

A report on the Jewish News Syndicate web site said that HonestReporting identified six freelance photographers—Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, Hatem Ali, Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih—who were present during the Hamas attacks that left over 1400 dead in the largest single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and whose work the news outlets are selling to other publications.

The Jerusalem Post asked on Thursday whether the photographers were aware in advance of the intent to carry out the massacre and how they arrived on the scene so quickly. Did Hamas allow them to be there? Did these news reporters have approval to enter Israel alongside the terrorists? Did the photographers inform their editors that they were accompanying the terrorists as they carried out the attacks against the Israelis?

Israel National News reported that the article on HonestReporting shows the photos from the Israel-Gaza border area on October 7 which included shots of a burning Israeli tank, and of infiltrators entering Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

“Let’s be clear: News agencies may claim that these people were just doing their job. Documenting war crimes, unfortunately, may be part of it. But it’s not that simple,” said HonestReporting.

The watchdog also noted that the AP apparently removed the names of the freelancers from some photos in its database. “Perhaps someone at the agency realized it posed serious questions regarding their journalistic ethics,” HonestReporting wrote.

The report asked, “Is it conceivable to assume that ‘journalists’ just happened to appear early in the morning at the border without prior coordination with the terrorists? Or were they part of the plan?”

Having said this, further investigation is being called for immediately and Israeli government officials have weighed in on the matter. Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon posted on X.com (formerly Twitter) and said, Israel’s internal security agency announced that they will eliminate all participants of the October 7 massacre. The” photojournalists” who took part in recording the assault will be added to that list.”

Israeli centrist leader Benny Gantz, a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, said journalists who were on the scene of the massacre but “still chose to stand as idle bystanders while children were slaughtered — are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such.”

The Israeli Government Press Office also took to X.com when the director Nitzan Chen demanded explanations from the bureau chiefs of AP, Reuters, CNN and the New York Times on the disturbing findings by HonestReporting concerning the involvement of their photographers in the events of October 7^th. He said that such involvement crosses every professional and moral red line.

For their part, HonestReporting said on X.com that “in the hours following our expose, new material is still coming to light concerning Gazan freelance journalist Hassan Eslaiah whom both AP & CNN used on Oct. 7. Here he is pictured with Hamas leader and mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar.”

The Jewish Insider reported that Reuters, the Associated Press and CNN scrambled overnight to distance themselves from allegations that they, as well as The New York Times, had advance warning of the terror attacks in Israel.

CNN said it had severed ties with Eslaiah, but said it did not have “any reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us,” according to a report on the Jewish Insider web site.  Reuters said it “did not have a prior relationship” with two of the named freelancers, and “categorically denies that they had prior knowledge of the attack or that we embedded journalists with Hamas on Oct 7.”

The JPost reported that Israel’s Foreign Press Association released a statement on Thursday stating that, “The Foreign Press Association is extremely concerned that recent Israeli government statements can encourage incitement against journalists documenting the war. The Foreign Press Association has full confidence in the news organization’s investigations.”

Taking this into account, those calling on the Israel Government Press Office to permanently ban the Associated Press, Reuters, CNN & the New York Times from covering events in Israel have much merit to their argument. While those first amendment aficionados may indeed squawk quite loudly over such a pronouncement, if after a rigorous and thorough investigation of the charges a commission of inquiry concludes that these outlets indeed had these freelancers at the scene of this heinous attack, then by all means, these news outlets along with their nefarious agenda should be booted out by Israel.

Yes, folks, Israel will be once again skewered by the world, but since public opinion is something that must be taken with a grain of salt, we must summon up the courage to call out the truth. Let’s not forget that this existential battle for Israel’s survival not only depends on military prowess and superiority, but on journalistic integrity which is so sorely lacking as evidenced in the coverage of the war in Gaza.

When journalists become soldiers and in this case accessories to wanton murder, when journalists are seen being publicly embraced by terrorist leaders, when these alleged journalists have absolutely no compunction about placing themselves in the middle of a massacre then the concept of integrity flies out the window and gives license to others who might have entertained the notion of doing the same.