Revelations cast doubt on the journalistic impartiality of such freelancers and the vetting procedures of media outlets that have relied on their work.
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Who are the freelance reporters in Gaza?
Who are these freelancers? It has unfortunately become evident during this war that among the world’s top media outlets, the standards for hiring freelance writers, photographers, and cameramen are considerably lower in Gaza than in Greece or Guatemala.
The media watchdog HonestReporting revealed on November 8 that
Gazan freelance journalist Hassan Eslaiah, who worked for both CNN and the Associated Press on October 7, crossed into Israel and took photos of a burning Israeli tank and infiltrators entering Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Eslaiah was found to be close with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the massacre.
While CNN and AP both broke ties with Eslaiah after the reports, AP continues to employ freelancer Issam Adwan, who HonestReporting revealed had called publicly for the annihilation of Israel and a “Palestinian revolt” and compared Israel to the Nazis. Adwan has not had a byline since that October 11 report, but he remains with AP.
On January 7, media widely reported that Israel had
killed two Palestinian “journalists” in Gaza – Al Jazeera freelancers Hamza Al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya, who had also been an AFP contributor. The reports quoted Al Jazeera’s condemnation of the deliberate Israeli “targeting” of journalists.
But barely any media outlets bothered to update or correct their report three days later when the IDF released evidence proving that Al-Dahdouh and Thuraya had been terror operatives.
Last week, HonestReporting published an investigation of Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa, a freelancer working for Reuters. In a video revealed by the probe, Abu Mostafa called on Gazans to cross the border into Israel on Oct. 7, as he did, and he excitedly displayed live on Instagram footage he filmed of Hamas atrocities, including the lynching of an Israeli soldier.
Abu Mostafa bragged that he had been in Israel “since the beginning” and detailed what he saw both at the border and deep inside Israel, in Sderot. He described breaking into a room where Israelis were hiding before being kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.
His border photos, including one of the lynching, were recently selected by Reuters and
The New York Times to be included in their 2023 “Images of the Year.” On Monday, Reuters led its compilation of photos from 100 days of war with a snapshot of Gazan infiltrations taken by Abu Mostafa.
The same investigation highlighted a friend of Eslaiah and Abu Mostafa, photojournalist Ashraf Amra, who has been working for AP, Reuters, and APA Images, as well as for the Turkish agency Anadolu. The investigation found that Amra had been honored with kisses by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who visited him in an Istanbul hospital in September.
Haniyeh told Amra during the visit that he appreciated his role and that of the Palestinian media in exposing “the crimes of the occupation.” Amra replied that his injury, which he blamed on Israel, would not prevent him from returning to his “national role.”
The high-profile hospital visit was not the first time Haniyeh had honored the veteran photojournalist, to whom he presented an award in 2012.
Such revelations cast doubt on the journalistic impartiality of such freelancers and the vetting procedures of media outlets that have relied on their work.
A commitment to journalistic ethics and basic humanity should prompt the news organizations to answer fundamental questions:
- What exactly are their vetting procedures for freelancers in Gaza?
- And, if there are different codes of conduct for freelancers vs. permanent staff in Gaza or elsewhere, then why isn’t that disclosed in every article that a freelancer works on?
There needs to be much greater transparency on the vetting process if men like Abu Mostafa and Amra, who mocked 1,200 Jews being murdered, are being treated like professionals by mainstream news organizations.
The media outlets clearly do not care about improving their standards if firings and suspensions only occur when they get caught.
The writer is executive director and executive editor of HonestReporting. He served as chief political correspondent and analyst of The Jerusalem Post
for 24 years.