Professors call for scrutiny of New York Times article on sexual violence during October 7 Hamas attack

A grave case of sexual violence during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 is receiving criticism. Dozens of professors are asking for an independent investigation.

Tuesday 30 April at 23:05

More than 50 university professors who teach journalism have signed a letter to the New York Times in which they question one of the newspaper’s digs from the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7.

The New York Times claimed in its case that there was a “pattern of gender-based violence” in the attack. The Washington Post has obtained access to the letter. Read it in its entirety here.

The professors question the credibility of the sources in the case, as well as the editorial assessments that led up to publication. At the same time, the letter emphasizes the difficulty of “writing a perfect draft of the story in real time”.

In the letter, they ask the NYT to “immediately set up a group of journalistic experts to conduct a thorough and completely independent investigation of the article, the editing, and the publishing process surrounding the story and publish the findings in a report.”

The letter is signed by professors at recognized universities such as the University of New York, the University of Pennsylvania, Emory and the University of Texas.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the NYT said that the newspaper has already “assessed the work that was done in this journalistic case complex and is satisfied that it met our editorial standards.”

In March, the NYT reported that a new video “undermines” some details of its initial investigation. But the newspaper did not publish a correction or retract the report published in December, according to the Washington Post.