HonestReporting

Pro Israel media monitoring organization

HonestReporting or Honest Reporting is an Israeli media advocacy group. it describes its mission as "combat[ting] ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel".

HonestReporting describes itself "a charitable organisation" with a mission "to combat ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel". By 2003 the list had 150,000 subscribers and began raising funds for it to become an independent organization. As of 2022, the Chief Executive Officer of HonestReporting was Jacki Alexander. She previously worked at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Florida and has a master's degree in the History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and BA in History and Religious Studies. Gil Hoffman was appointed as the Executive Director of HonestReporting in 2022. He previously served as the chief political correspondent and analyst for the Jerusalem Post. 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; in 2011, the HR UK website was merged into the main site. HonestReporting Canada (HRC) was founded as an independent group 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. 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.

The American Journalism Review described the organisation as a "pro Israeli pressure group". After being criticized by HonestReporting for articles published by The Independent, author Robert Fisk wrote in the Independent that some of their readers sent him hate mail. Following a 2004 article published in the British Medical Journal which criticised Israel for a high level of Palestinian civilian casualties and claimed that the pattern of injuries suggested routine targeting of children in situations of minimal or no threat, the journal received over 500 responses to its website and nearly 1,000 sent directly to its editor. In an analysis of the responses published in the journal, Karl Sabbagh concluded that the correspondence was orchestrated by Honest Reporting and aimed at silencing legitimate criticism of Israel. In his analysis Sabbagh pointed to evidence that the correspondents had not read the article. Sabbagh also documented a significant proportion of offensive, abusive and racist insults among the correspondence. An editorial by the BMJ referred to the campaign as bullying and said that the best way to counter such behaviour was to expose it to public scrutiny. Daniel Finkelstein, associate editor of The Times, responded that Sabbagh's piece was "anti Israel propaganda" that did not meet even "basic academic standards" of scientific analysis. During the Israel–Hamas war, HonestReporting said that the journalists who had photographed the October7 Hamas attack were "part of the plan" and involved in "coordination with the terrorists"; later, the group's executive director said he had no evidence for the allegation. The report led two Israeli politicians to threaten that these journalists be killed, while the Israeli Prime Minister's office said the journalists were "accomplices in crimes against humanity". The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and CNN strongly refuted allegations that they had 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. Additional criticism also came from the Committee to Protect Journalists. 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.