The Shadow of Israeli Censorship Falls on CNN Coverage on Gaza

On Thursday, Daniel Boguslaw, a U.S.-based investigative journalist, published an article in The Intercept showing that CNN usually publishes stories about the Gaza war that are reviewed by its Jerusalem bureau before publication.

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While this "internal" review policy could be considered a resource for ensuring accuracy on a controversial issue, it means that much of the coverage on Gaza is influenced by journalists who operate under the shadow of censorship from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) .

While the Israeli military does not directly review every story on Gaza, they impose restrictions on subjects and articles deemed unfit or unsafe to be disseminated internationally.

As a result, the Jerusalem-based review policy has allegedly impacted the coverage of the Gaza war, with lines favoring Israeli narratives often being edited with a specific nuance, maintains Boguslaw, who prepared his article using the testimony of a CNN staff member whose name he withheld in anonymity.

Currently, all international press agencies operating in Israel are subject to IDF rules, which require journalists and reporters to sign agreements before they can be accredited to carry out their work.

However, accepting regular, standardized IDF checks, CNN issued directives for its journalists to use certain language when reporting on the Gaza war.

Among other things, these directives include the use of descriptions such as "the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry" and warnings against broadcasting Hamas statements unless they are accompanied by greater context.

"The CNN staff member described how the policy works in practice. 'War-crime' and 'genocide' are taboo words... Israeli bombings in Gaza will be reported as 'blasts' attributed to nobody, until the Israeli military weighs in to either accept or deny responsibility," the Intercept article mentioned.

"Quotes and information provided by Israeli army and government officials tend to be approved quickly, while those from Palestinians tend to be heavily scrutinized and slowly processed,” it added.

Boguslaw also noted that CNN sought to improve its coverage of the Gaza war by hiring Tamar Michaelis, a former Israeli soldier who served in the IDF's Spokesperson Unit.