Reporters Without Borders, or Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), has been caught removing at least two Gazan terrorists from its database and list of Palestinian media workers slain in the Israel-Hamas War, after they had previously been identified as journalists by the Paris-based media rights non-profit.
This was first revealed by HonestReporting on Wednesday, and the information was verified by The Jerusalem Post.
On July 20, HonestReporting recorded 68 names of slain Gazan journalists on the RSF media abuses Barometer. 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.
By June 11, RSF also removed Jarghoun’s name from a running article featuring brief profiles of journalists “killed in connection with their work,” during the Israel-Hamas War.
HonestReporting says over 25% of RSF journalists still listed have terror ties
Before Jarghoun’s removal, his description read: “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 October 7 [2023],” read an earlier edit of the ongoing article.
Since June 10, RSF also removed the name of 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.”
According to Al-Quds Brigades, Huwaidi was a commander in its Central Military Media Unit. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) found that he had participated in combat and has already removed him from their own database of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas War.
HonestReporting also noted that, 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 says on its Barometer page that journalists are listed only if RSF has established that their death or imprisonment was “linked to their journalistic activity” and not if they were killed or imprisoned for reasons unrelated to their work.
According to a preliminary audit by HonestReporting, of the 67 remaining journalists in RSF’s database, at least 26.86% have ties to terrorism. 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, eight were alleged by the IDF to be terrorists, and a nineteenth was affiliated with a news outlet of disputed terrorist affiliation.
HonestReporting noted that RSF holds significant sway over international reporting. From May 2025 until August 4, RSF was cited in 40 articles on the subject of the IDF ‘targeting’ journalists, published by 13 major Western English-language news outlets.
Given the importance it has played as a source of information, HonestReporting called on RSF to publicly explain why it has altered its records and withdrawn ICC complaints that featured terrorists.
The Post reached out to RSF for comment, but it did not respond by press time.