Media outlets across the board in Israel joined Israel Hayom in calling for action over the apparent ethical lapses of Gaza-based journalists working for foreign media outlets during the October 7 attack after it had emerged that the reporters and photojournalists may have been alerted by Hamas or coordinated with it the timing of their arrival at the scenes of the horrific atrocities, essentially being part of the plan. The revelations were first reported by media watchdog HonestReporting.
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Following Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief Omer Lachmanovitch's public call on the foreign outlets to sever ties with the journalists and purge any instance of such blood journalism, a whole host of Israeli media platforms agreed to affix the signature of their general directors and CEOs to the collective letter on the matter alongside Lachmanovitch.
The media outlets are the broadcasters Kann (Israel's public broadcaster), Channel 12 News, Channel 13 News, and Channel 14 News, as well as the newspapers Makor Rishon, Maariv, Globes, and the Jerusalem Post, the radio station Army Radio and the weekly B'Sheva.
We bring you below Lachmanovitch's letter from Wednesday morning, to which they agreed to join:
An exposé published by the media watchdog HonestReporting on November 8, 2023, shows that Gaza-based reporters and photojournalists for the international agencies AP and Reuters – who also report for CNN and The New York Times – engaged in real-time coverage of the atrocities on October 7 perpetrated by the Hamas terrorist organization in the western Negev communities.
According to the HonestReporting investigation, these journalists documented, among other things, the kidnapping of Israeli civilians and soldiers, the abduction of bodies, the mutilation of the body of a deceased IDF soldier (a photo that was included in Reuters' "Pictures of the Day"), and the takeover of a tank by Hamas terrorists. The footage from that day shows those media people ostensibly carrying out "journalistic work," but their presence on the scene during the early hours of the Hamas invasion – which caught Israel off guard and which was kept under wraps through rigorous compartmentalization – raises serious questions as to whether there was prior coordination with the Hamas terrorist organization.
This is not journalism. It is tantamount to taking part in crimes against humanity and runs against any ethical professional standard.
We strongly condemn the actions of these photojournalists and reporters and call on the international photo agencies AP and Reuters, as well as other media outlets that work with them, to follow in CNN's footsteps and immediately sever all professional ties with those individuals, denounce and disassociate from their actions unequivocally – as well as ensure they have no such blood journalism in their midst.
I urge my fellow colleagues in the Israeli media to join me by signing this call to action,
Omer Lachmanovitch, Editor-in-Chief
Israel Hayom
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