The fallout from HonestReporting’s exposure of Gaza-based photojournalists who infiltrated into Israel from Gaza on October 7 continues. The conversation started by this organization concerning the ethics of both the Palestinian media workers and those outlets that employed them or used their work has been consequential.
In the past few days, the world’s two biggest news agencies have again found themselves in the spotlight.
Reuters Distances Itself from Gaza Freelancer
Writing in The Algemeiner, Ira Stoll reported on February 21 that Reuters “is distancing itself from a freelance photographer after a pro-Israel journalism watchdog organization found an Instagram video of the photographer on October 7 appearing to urge Gazans to cross over into Israel.”
The photographer, Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa was featured in HonestReporting’s expose that included his October 7 photo of a lynch mob brutalizing an Israeli soldier at the breached Gaza border.
Last month, we exposed an Instagram video in which Abu Mostafa laughed while sharing a video of the lynch and recounting his experience of being inside Israel while terrorists took innocent civilians out of their homes. It is in this Instagram video that he also called on Gazans to cross into Israel.
Related Reading: EXPOSED: Gaza Photojournalists Shared Call to Infiltrate Israel on Oct. 7
As The Algemeiner reports:
The media monitoring group HonestReporting published what it said was a video of the photographer, Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa, saying in Arabic, “Advice, whoever can go – go. It is a one-time event that will not happen again.”
While we appreciate the fact that Reuters told the Algemeiner that it “considers unacceptable the behavior in the video of Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa,” we wonder why the agency keeps highlighting his border lynch photo as one of its top images of the year.
Why give such recognition to a person who gleefully recounted how he had joined Hamas terrorists while they were rampaging through Israeli communities?
Is that really the standard Reuters wants to set?
Nonetheless, the “distancing” of Reuters from Abu Mostafa is a welcome success.
Lawsuit Accuses AP of “Materially Supporting Terrorism”
According to a New York Post report from February 21, a lawsuit has been filed that accuses the Associated Press of “materially supporting terrorism” by paying “alleged Hamas-associated” photojournalists for images captured during and immediately after the October 7 invasion, in which Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped about 250 others.
The lawsuit focuses mainly on Hassan Eslaiah, a freelance photojournalist with whom AP (as well as CNN) cut ties following HonestReporting’s November 8 expose in which we had questioned his early morning presence at the Israel-Gaza border and inside Israeli communities. A photo we produced showing him being kissed on the cheek by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar also raised serious concerns.
Related Reading: Broken Borders: AP & Reuters Pictures of Hamas Atrocities Raise Ethical Questions
The NY Post quotes the lawsuit and also mentions the questions raised by HonestReporting:
“AP willfully chose to turn a blind eye to these facts, and instead profited from its terrorist photographer’s participation in the massacre through its publication of the ‘exclusive’ images, for which it certainly paid a premium, effectively funding a terrorist organization,” the suit alleges.
Questions about the photojournalists’ allegiances were first raised by pro-Israel media watchdog, Honest Reporting [sic], just days after the terrorists’ gruesome invasion of the Jewish nation.
The report adds that AP and Eslaiah did not immediately return requests for comment regarding the legal action, that has been filed as a federal complaint in the Southern District of Florida under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
We will, of course, be following developments with interest.
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