CPJ whistleblowers sound alarm after No Frontiers story publishes
One day after No Frontiers' story published, anonymous current and former CPJ staffers blow whistle on the press freedom org, echoing No Frontiers' reporting
One day after No Frontiers published its investigation into the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and its downplaying of Israel’s targeting of journalists, a group of anonymous CPJ whistleblowers came forward to accuse the organization and its CEO of appeasing its pro-Israel donors by minimizing Israel’s targeting of journalists.
A late-November No Frontiers’ investigation found CPJ downplayed Israel’s targeted killing campaign against Palestinian journalists in Gaza by proclaiming 85-88% of journalist killings by Israel as “dangerous assignment” deaths, rather than “murder” or targeted killings. It’s now known that “dangerous assignment” is CPJ’s “default classification” for journalists killed in Gaza, citing fog-of-war challenges in reporting.
The next day, whistleblowers echoed these same concerns to the Electronic Intifada, pointing a finger at Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of CPJ, claiming she has been interfering with research and advocacy to hide Israel’s targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza from public view over the past two years of Israeli genocide. They even claim one employee was fired in retaliation for arguing with Ginsberg when she wouldn’t classify the Israeli killing of journalists as targeted murders (and instead are classified as “dangerous assignment” deaths).
“Jodie intervenes in all of our research and advocacy on Gaza to make sure we stay south of any serious effort toward a serious accountability mechanism”—CPJ whistleblowers.
“The whistleblowers confirmed what we already knew,” said ZO (pseudonym for Zionist Observer), founder of archival and research group Databases for Palestine, and who has championed this issue throughout Israel’s genocide. “I want CPJ to correct the historical record.”
For ZO, there are still numerous questions for CPJ as the prestigious press freedom organization, and its role in shielding Israeli targeting of journalists in Gaza from global scrutiny.
No Frontiers, ZO, and Electronic Intifada contributor Abubaker Abed convened for a panel discussion about CPJ on X’s Spaces platform. Listen to the panel here.
Per a statement by Jodie Ginsberg to No Frontiers, it’s now known that CPJ uses ‘dangerous assignment’ as a “default classification” for journalists killed by Israel, because CPJ says there is not enough information to conclude whether the journalist was indeed targeted. However, to include them in its database, CPJ imposes its own presuppositions, assuming the journalist was on a news-gathering assignment; otherwise, its methodology strictly excludes journalists killed while off duty. (Being off duty shouldn’t matter when an assassination is involved.)
“Despite damning evidence of war crimes committed by Israel, Jodie Ginsberg’s clever capping of what CPJ can do or say on Gaza is effectively dissipating our evidentiary power, which could easily be admissible evidence before the ICC,” the whistleblowers told Electronic Intifada.
Palestinian journalists were killed in the hundreds, and continue to be killed and jailed amidst Israel’s ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing. Yet CPJ still only acknowledges 21 targeted journalist killings in Gaza—those who Israel publicly smeared as terrorist bombing targets.
“I want CPJ to fix their database, which they haven’t done to this day,” said ZO. ZO went on, "They are writing the historical record, and I want them to explain themselves and to correct their database.”