CPJ removes 20 people from list of media workers killed in Gaza war — Jerusalem Post
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has removed 20 people from its database of journalists and media workers killed during the war in the Gaza Strip. The organization said new research established their involvement in hostilities, The Jerusalem Post reports.
Review of data on the dead
CPJ reviewed documentation concerning journalists and media workers who died between October 2023 and August 2026. The process began after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad published obituaries describing some people previously listed in the CPJ database as journalists as participants in hostilities.
Three more people were excluded after it was concluded that they were neither journalists nor media workers; one person appeared in both categories simultaneously. At the same time, CPJ returned six people to the list, recognizing that their deaths were related to their professional activities.
Those returned to the database include Assaad Shamlakh. Ahmed Abu Mhadi was reclassified from a journalist to a media worker without being removed from the registry. Another nine people were moved from the journalists category to the media workers category, while three were moved in the opposite direction.
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Methodology and external audit
CPJ stated that the review changed neither its methodology nor its definition of a journalist or media worker. Researchers examined published materials, social media posts, photographs, videos and other data. When new evidence emerged, the organization sought to speak with at least two additional people who knew the deceased. This was achieved in 220 of the 229 reviewed cases.
After the first phase of the review, CPJ commissioned an external audit. The auditor found no evidence that the organization had retained or removed people contrary to its own criteria, but recommended providing a more detailed explanation of how a person's involvement in hostilities is determined.
CPJ emphasized that membership in an armed group alone is not grounds for exclusion from the database if a person worked as a civilian journalist and did not directly participate in hostilities. At the same time, under the organization's current rules, participants in hostilities are not included in statistics on killed journalists and media workers.
Media monitoring organization HonestReporting criticized CPJ's findings, citing links between some media workers in Gaza and armed groups. CPJ responded that decisions were made based on whether people met the organization's definitions, rather than on their views or affiliations.
