Palestinian Hamas terrorists stand guard on the day of the handover of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

Since the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) were exposed by HonestReporting for silently removing terrorists from slain Gazan media workers lists, both organizations have removed further terrorists in an opaque process that inexplicably allows other terrorists to remain classified as journalists.

IFJ was revealed on July 27 to have removed eight terrorism-linked individuals from its list of journalists, and since then Namaa Radio general manager Moussa Al-Barsh has also been removed.

Al-Barsh was killed in the same alleged Israeli airstrike in Jabalia that critically wounded his brother, Naama Radio executive director and Hamas terrorist Yacoup Al-Barsh. The family, which controls the radio station and the Namaa sports club, has several ties to Hamas. Relative Sameh Adel Al-Barsh was praised by family as a member of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and Hamas issued a martyr video for Hashem Adly Al-Barsh. The latter’s three brothers, which included Hamas-affiliated Al-Rai Radio sound engineer Assem Al-Barsh, have all been described by family members in social media posts as “Mujahid.”

The Al-Rai sound engineer remains on the IFJ list from which his relative was removed. Smart News internet reporter Mohammad Jarghoun also remains at the top of the list, despite Hamas admitting that he was a member of its Rafah Brigade on July 1, and his removal from RSF’s database.

RSF had removed Jarghoun and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) member Mohamed Nasr Abu Huwaidi from its database by June 11. Sometime after Aug. 5, a third terrorist, PIJ Al Quds Brigade terrorist and Shams News Agency managing editor Muhammad Mahmoud Abu Sharia, was removed from the database and an ongoing article.

Both Abu Huwaidi and Abu Sharia were the subjects of a September 2024 criminal complaint by RSF to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and it is unknown if the complaint has been withdrawn or revised. Assem Al-Barsh remains the subject of another December 2023 ICC complaint.

The process by which the IFJ and RSF have removed individuals from their databases remains unclear. No public statements have been made about the revisions that would explain why some terrorists remain on their lists while other individuals have been removed.

IFJ noted on its tally web page that it was “working hard to keep this list up-to-date and accurate” and welcomed “any further information that either contextualizes the deaths itemized, or adds names to the list,” but did not indicate why it might remove names.

Sometime after June 10, RSF added to its ongoing article about Gazan journalists that the organization “updates this registry on an ongoing basis as new information becomes available concerning journalists killed since Oct. 7, 2023.”

A qualification attached to the RSF Barometer database notes, “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.”

Yet with so many terrorists remaining on their lists, the process seems arbitrary.

Confirmation and severity of terrorist ties do not seem to be the deciding factor. Terrorists with martyr posters issued by their organizations, like Jarghoun, remain on the IFJ list. Mohammed Fayez Abu Matar remains on both the IFJ and RSF lists, despite Hamas issuing a martyr notice for him on Aug. 2.

If being confirmed as a card-carrying member by a terrorist organization is not the deciding factor, it could be considered that time could be the issue — Abu Matar was only confirmed an Al-Qassam member two weeks ago. Yet this qualification also fails under scrutiny: Mujahideen Brigades terrorist Ahmed Abu Sharia was outed back in November 2024 but remains on the IFJ list, while Al-Qassam terrorist Mohamed Manhal Abu Armanah was removed from the list and affirmed by Hamas in April 2026. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine confirmed that Ahmed Badir was a member in January 2024, long before Jarghoun was announced on July 1. Yet he remains on the RSF list.

Awareness should likewise not be an issue, as HonestReporting and independent analysts have publicly been noting when terrorist organizations reveal a supposed journalist to be an operative. HonestReporting posted on X on Aug. 3 that a notice was issued for Abu Matar. A similar post was made about Aziz Al-Hajjar on Aug. 7 when PIJ announced that he was in their Northern Brigade’s Central Military Media Unit. Al-Hajjar is still featured on the IFJ list.

The transparency of a process used by journalism rights groups to determine why some terrorists continue to be called journalists, while others do not, is vital when they are being used as trustworthy sources by news outlets. From May 2025 until Aug. 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. In the same time period, 19 articles were published by 11 outlets citing IFJ.

These databases were used as the basis for an anti-Israel narrative, but now that the story has been established and the news articles have been written, their foundations have been discovered to be rotten. The actors in the story are being recast without the public or the news outlets being informed.

Without an explanation for why some terrorists remain on Gazan journalists lists while others are removed, the more that deception is assumed to be the answer.

HonestReporting is a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.