The Committee to Protect Journalists is in damage-control mode amid a furor over a review of Palestinian journalists in its Gaza casualty database and attempts to change the definition of who is a journalist to exclude some Palestinians.
A group of current and former CPJ insiders say the Gaza database review is a capitulation to Israel’s agenda and a damaging distraction from CPJ’s actual obligation to pursue accountability for the killing of journalists on an unprecedented scale.
On 3 July, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate added its condemnation of efforts to smear Palestinian journalists killed in the genocide and rejected CPJ’s effort to narrow the definition of who qualifies as a journalist.
CPJ has meanwhile confirmed to The Electronic Intifada that it is now reviewing the status of at least four individuals whose names were removed from its database of Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.