CPJ Launches Review Of Gaza Journalist Death Database After Hamas, PIJ Obituaries

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on June 25 it was conducting a full review of its database of journalists killed in Gaza after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published obituaries identifying as combatants individuals previously listed by CPJ as journalists.

“Gaza War: How many journalists were killed during the war between Israel and Gaza, and who were they”

BBC

CPJ said that as of June 25 its count of journalists and media workers killed by Israel in Gaza and in Israeli detention centres since October 7, 2023, stands at 209, and it had already removed 20 names from its database.

BBC

CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said, “CPJ has always been clear that we do not include anyone in our data sets if there is evidence that they were engaging in combat or inciting imminent violence,” and the group said the review is expected to be completed in July.

The Jerusalem Post described CPJ’s approach as removing names if subsequent evidence shows individuals were not journalists or media workers, were not active in those capacities at the time of their deaths, or were engaging in combat, and it said CPJ removed eight names because they were later established to have been members of Hamas or PIJ.

The dispute over the review also surfaced publicly after Nika Soon-Shiong, publisher of Drop Site News and a CPJ board member since 2021, circulated a letter raising concerns about the scope and purpose of the review.

Soon-Shiong said she was no longer a board member after sharing her concerns, writing on X, “I have been informed that I'm no longer a member of the Committee to Protect Journalists board,” and Middle East Eye reported CPJ told it her “five year board term ended in June 2026.”

In her letter, Soon-Shiong argued that reopening “the question of ‘who is a journalist’ carries profound implications for the individuals CPJ protects,” and she said the proposal to exclude journalists who exhibit certain “behaviours and activities” or who work for “state-backed propaganda outlets, militant- and designated terror-affiliated organisations” had emerged from a Washington Free Beacon article.

Haaretz

Mohammed El-Kurd, Palestine correspondent for The Nation and editor-at-large for Mondoweiss, said the CPJ board would “formally change its definition of who qualifies as a journalist, to broadly exclude slain Palestinian and Lebanese journalists who worked for government-funded media outlets,” while Israeli, American, and Ukrainian journalists working for state-funded outlets or embedded with militaries would remain recognized.

The Jerusalem Post quoted CPJ’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg condemning “the misrepresentation of combatants as journalists or media workers – or the misuse of ‘Press’ insignia,” saying such actions “endanger every single individual journalist legitimately trying to report.”

CPJ said it would remove names from its database if subsequent evidence shows individuals were engaging in combat or inciting imminent violence, and it said in-person verification in Gaza has not been possible since the start of the war because Israel refused access to the territory.

“A record number of 129 journalists and media professionals were killed while on the job in 2025, two-thirds of them by the State of Israel, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, in its latest report”

Kapitalis

As the review proceeds, the dispute has also been framed through competing claims about who is counted as a journalist, with the Jerusalem Post reporting Israel’s Foreign Ministry said, “Gaza ‘journalists’ = Hamas & Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists.”

The Newslaundry report said CPJ had already removed 20 names from its database by June 25—eight because they were later established to have been Hamas or PIJ combatants and a further 12 for “other reasons”—and it said the review is expected to be completed in July.

Beyond the Gaza-specific database review, CPJ’s broader tally has been cited in other coverage, with Kapitalis reporting that CPJ said Israel was responsible for 86 journalists in 2025 and that the number of journalists killed worldwide reached a record high for the second consecutive year after 124 deaths in 2024.

In that same CPJ framing, Jodie Ginsberg warned in Le Matin d'Algérie that “Journalists are being killed in record numbers at a time when access to information is more important than ever,” linking the stakes of the counting dispute to press safety and accountability.