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HonestReporting
Pro-Israel media monitoring organization From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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HonestReporting or Honest Reporting is an Israeli media advocacy group.[1] A pro-Israel media watchdog,[2][3] it describes its mission as "combat[ting] ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel".[1]
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HonestReporting says its mission is "to combat ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel".[1] It was founded in October 2000 by Shaul Rosenblatt, founder and head of Aish Hatorah-United Kingdom in response to controversy over the Tuvia Grossman photograph at the outbreak of the Second Intifada. The episode is often cited by those who accuse the media of having an anti-Israel bias, and was the impetus for the founding of HonestReporting.[4][5][6]
Within six weeks, HonestReporting had an email list of 10,000 volunteers to monitor the media and respond accordingly. Irwin Katsof offered to lead fundraising efforts to hire professional staff.[6]
As of 2022, the chief executive officer of HonestReporting was Jacki Alexander.[7] Gil Hoffman was appointed as the executive director of HonestReporting in 2022.[8]
In March 2006, a dedicated website by HonestReporting for covering the media in the UK was launched by two expatriate Britons, CEO Joe Hyams, and managing editor Simon Plosker;[9] in 2011, the HR UK website was merged into the main site.[10]
HonestReporting Canada
HonestReporting Canada (HRC) was founded in 2003 to monitor Middle East news coverage in Canada. Journalist Jonathan Kay credited HRC with reducing perceived anti-Israel bias in the English-language media in Canada by 2011.[11][12] In 2012, a campaign by HRC led to a Canadian Broadcast Standards Council investigation after local politician Stéphane Gendron made controversial comments on the French-language V Television Network.[13]
In November 2024, Honest Reporting Canada's assistant director, Robert Walker, was criminally charged with 17 counts of mischief for allegedly vandalizing several properties in a Toronto neighborhood by spray painting anti-Palestinian graffiti.[14][15] The charges were withdrawn on March 5, 2025, in recognition of a $1,000 charitable donation by Walker to the Sick Kids Foundation.[16]
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HonestReporting reviews news articles and op-eds regarding Israel to check for and respond to any bias or fake news.[17][18] HonestReporting is not a news organization, and therefore does not seek to follow journalistic ethics and standards.[1]
HonestReporting's actions have resulted in a number of corrections in the media. In 2022, Idris Muktar Ibrahim, a producer at CNN, was found to have made social media posts praising Hamas and saying "#TeamHitler."[19] After HonestReporting contacted CNN about the producer's ability to report impartially, CNN ended their working relationship with him.[20] He later apologized.[21]
In 2012, HonestReporting filed a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in the UK after The Guardian ran a correction apologizing for having called Jerusalem Israel's capital, contrary to the paper's style guide. HonestReporting acted to initiate a judicial review after the PCC initially ruled that The Guardian had not breached the PCC code, saying that the ruling had "potential to further delegitimize Jerusalem's status as Israel's capital." The PCC retracted its original ruling and asked the paper to defend its position. The Guardian then modified its style guide so that it no longer categorically states that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel rather than Jerusalem.[22]
In 2022, journalist Shatha Hammad was discovered to have posted on Facebook that she considered Adolf Hitler her "friend"[23] and that they "share the same ideology, such as the extermination of the Jews."[24] Hammad made other posts using the nickname "Hitler" and denying Israel's right to exist.[25] She also termed terrorists who murdered Israeli worshipers in the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue attack as "martyrs." After HonestReporting's exposure of her posts, the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund withdrew the awards they had granted her.[26]
In 2023, news producer Fady Hanona was discovered by HonestReporting to have posted antisemitic social media posts,[27][28] leading news outlets he previously worked for such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and others to cut ties with him.[29]
In November 2023, HonestReporting published an article questioning whether Palestinian photojournalists had tipped off the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and CNN prior to the October 7 attacks. The report led two Israeli politicians to threaten that these journalists be killed,[30] while the Israeli Prime Minister's office said the journalists were "accomplices in crimes against humanity".[31] The media organizations strongly refuted allegations that they had any prior knowledge of the Hamas attack. Yousef Masoud, whose photos were published in the NYT and AP, started photographing 90 minutes after the attack started. Reuters said that its pictures, taken by two freelance photojournalists, were taken two hours after the attack began. The AP and CNN announced that they would stop working with one of the freelance photographers after HonestReporting showed a picture of him being kissed by Hamas leader Yehia Sinwar.[32][33][31] On November 10, 2023, HonestReporting's director said he accepted that the media groups had no advance knowledge of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.[1]
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