HonestReporting – Reporters Without Borders Latest to Be Caught Stealth Editing Terrorists Out of Slain Gaza Journalist List
Reporters Without Borders removed Hamas terrorist Mohammad Jarghoun and Islamic Jihad terrorist Mohamed Nasr Abu Huwaidi from key web pages.
Key Takeaways:
- Reporters Without Borders removed two Gazan terrorists from their database of slain Palestinian journalists.
- The NGO hasn’t made an announcement explaining its decision and appears to be obscuring its mistakes like the International Federation of Journalists.
- At least one complaint to the ICC was made about one of the removed terrorists, yet they do not appear to have been retracted.
Reporters Without Borders, or Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), has been caught stealthily removing at least two Gazan terrorists from its database and list of Palestinian media workers slain in the October 7 War, after they had previously been identified as journalists by the Paris-based media rights non-profit.
The Removal of Mohammad Jarghoun
On July 20, HonestReporting recorded the 68 names of slain Gazan journalists on the RSF media abuses Barometer, a figure confirmed by archival pages of the database. By August 4, the Barometer listed 67 names. The missing name that had previously been recorded was Hamas terrorist Mohammad Jarghoun, who on July 1 had been announced by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades as part of its Rafah Brigade’s Martyr Muhammad Abu Harb Battalion.
Jarghoun was also removed by June 11 from a running article with brief profiles of journalists “killed in connection with their work,” during the October 7 War. On June 10, Jarghoun was still included on the webpage and still appears in the French- language version. He is also still mentioned in a November 2023 update.
“This 23-year-old reporter working for the Smart Media production company was killed by Israeli fire while covering fighting near the Rafah crossing point in the south of the Gaza Strip on 7 October [2023],” read an earlier edit of the ongoing article.
The Removal of Mohamed Nasr Abu Huwaidi
Another name that had been removed from the article after June 10 was Mohamed Nasr Abu Huwaidi, who according to RSF “was clearly identifiable by his press vest when he was killed by an Israeli bombardment on 23 December in the Chajaya district, in eastern Gaza City, where he had gone to film the aftermath of an Israeli strike.”
Huwaidi wasn’t just a journalist for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) affiliated Al-Istiklal, but according to the terrorist organization’s Al-Quds Brigades, was also a commander in its Central Military Media Unit. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) found that he had participated in combat and removed him from their own database of journalists killed in the October 7 War. PIJ’s announcement of Huwaidi’s affiliation was made on March 19.
Despite being a terrorist, Huwaidi was one of the subjects of a September 2024 complaint filed by RSF to the International Criminal Court (ICC), alleging that the State of Israel was responsible for the murder of journalists. Another PIJ terrorist, Muhammad Mahmoud Abu Sharia, was another subject of the complaint. A December 2023 complaint included Asem Al-Barsh, whose family members described him as a “mujahid,” and had Hamas fighters within his family. A May 2024 complaint included Ahmed Badir, who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Despite these issues, RSF has not withdrawn or revised its ICC filings.
RSF Methodological Issues
In addition to the removal of Jarghoun and Huwaidi from the article, an amendment about RSF’s methodology appeared at the bottom after June 10, noting that the organization “updates this registry on an ongoing basis as new information becomes available concerning journalists killed since October 7, 2023.”
“The organization applies a rigorous methodology of data collection and fact-checking despite severe operational constraints, including the continued lack of independent access to the Gaza Strip and parts of southern Lebanon,” RSF continued.
RSF notes in the article and its Barometer that “journalists are listed only if RSF has established that their death or imprisonment was linked to their journalistic activity. The list does not include journalists who were killed or imprisoned for reasons unrelated to their work or when the link to their work has not yet been confirmed.”
This caused strife with the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, which in December 2023 accused RSF of “whitewashing the image of the occupation” by only including journalists killed in the line of duty.
However, RSF also created an appearance of certainty about the nature of Jarghoun and Huwaidi’s deaths, with materials claiming that the reason for their demise was “established” as being connected to their work.
According to a preliminary audit by HonestReporting, of the 67 remaining journalists in RSF’s database, at least 26.86% have terrorist ties. Three have had martyr notices issued by terrorist organizations, three have been linked to participation in hostilities through obituaries and other open-source information, four were employed by terrorist-affiliated outlets, and eight were alleged by the IDF to be terrorists. A nineteenth was affiliated with a news outlet of disputed terrorist affiliation.
Lack of Transparency
Despite the previous certainty established about the circumstances of Jarghoun’s and Huwaidi’s deaths and proclamations about its methodology, RSF has not issued any statements regarding the revision of its database and documents – likely seeking to avoid a clash as previously experienced with PJS.
It is unclear how many revisions RSF has made to its database, and who was previously on it, as the Barometer is constructed with interactive scripts that do not lend easily to archiving. Snapshots show fluctuations over time, with “Palestine” being marked in 2023 with twenty-six abuses, including killings, against journalists. Yet the same time frame in the updated Barometer shows only 22 abuses. There are other indications of changes, with one January 26 article stating that 68 journalists were killed for their work during the Gaza war, while a country overview stated that “at least” 70 were killed for practicing journalism.
Impact of RSF on Narrative
The impact of RSF on the news landscape belies the lack of transparency and dishonesty about its records. From May 2025 until August 4, RSF was cited on the subject of the IDF ostensibly targeting journalists in 40 articles published by 13 different major Western English-language news outlets.
Given the importance that it has played as a source of information, RSF should publicly explain why it has altered its records, and withdraw ICC complaints featuring terrorists.
In June, CPJ announced that it would be conducting an audit of its own database, due to terrorist organizations publishing obituaries exposing individuals in its database as operatives. Eight have already been removed for involvement in hostilities, and seven more for not meeting the definition of journalist. Like RSF, the International Federation of Journalists had silently removed eight people tied to terrorism from its own database, though it has provided no public explanation for this move despite being exposed by HonestReporting.
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