CPJ reverses decision to discount slain Gaza journalists after global outrage

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reportedly reversed its decision to delete Gaza journalists from its database of murdered reporters. The decision came after the CPJ board overruled its chair Jacob Weisberg, considered the main driver of the original change.

Weisberg, a vocal supporter of Israel appointed as chair in 2023, has argued against boycotts of the apartheid colony and described the BDS movement as “repellent”. He described supporters of BDS — the Palestinian ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions’ campaign against the occupier — as “sheeplike, liberal opinion”.

CPJ — Who counts?

The CPJ had changed its criteria of who counts as a journalist, reducing the number recorded as killed by Israel in Palestine and Lebanon. But the switch, condemned as a “betrayal” of Palestinian journalists, has now been rolled back, to the fury of the IOF and Israeli media who had claimed some slain journalists were ‘terrorists’. The reversal came after hundreds of outraged journalists and campaigners emailed the CPJ to demand it.

The discriminatory switch had been ignored by western state-corporate media. However, it triggered a global wave of disgust among journalists and members of the public who have witnessed Israel’s mass slaughter of journalists and their families throughout the Gaza genocide.

Featured image via the Canary