Response to NewsGuard’s queries from Sarah Ghabsha, Al Jazeera’s director of corporate communications
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Please find below our responses to the points you have raised, and we are happy to discuss this further in our upcoming meeting.

Q1 Funding: How much of the network’s funding is received from the State of Qatar, and does this amount change from year to year?

Al Jazeera Media Network Response:

Al Jazeera Media Network is funded in part by the State of Qatar. This is disclosed on our website. The proportion of funding from the State of Qatar sources relative to other revenue streams, including advertising and sponsorship, varies from year to year as part of the Network’s ordinary financial management. We do not publish a detailed annual breakdown of funding sources.

Q2 Can Al Jazeera confirm that Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic share bureaus while operating as separate editorial outlets?

Al Jazeera Media Network Response:

Yes. Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic share physical bureau space in a number of locations, but each operates with its own separate editorial management, leadership, and reporting teams. This structure reflects the two outlets’ distinct audiences, languages, and editorial lines.

Q3  Can Al Jazeera confirm how many of its journalists have been killed while reporting since the network’s founding

Al Jazeera Media Network Response:

Since Al Jazeera’s founding in 1996, 24 members of Al Jazeera staff have been killed while carrying out their professional duties, including 12 who were killed since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.

The Network considers the safety of its journalists a matter of the highest priority and has repeatedly and publicly called for the protection of journalists and media workers in conflict zones, including in Gaza.

Q4  Allegations Regarding Journalists and Hamas/PIJ: NewsGuard requests comment on allegations made by the Israeli military concerning several Al Jazeera journalists, including documents allegedly linking journalists to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and claims regarding editorial communications between Hamas and Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera Media Network Response:

Al Jazeera categorically denies the allegations of the Israeli military. The claims and documents have not been independently authenticated or examined by any impartial body, and the Israeli military has not disclosed how the materials were obtained or verified. As is now part of the public record in litigation in the United States (Shnaider v. Al Jazeera Media Network, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-00538), the claims of Al Jazeera journalists’ affiliation with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad were largely made by the Israeli military more than a year after the October 7, 2023 attacks, and often only in the days immediately following the Israeli military’s killing or injury of the journalist in question.

Al Jazeera is gravely concerned that these unverified allegations have repeatedly been used to justify the targeting of its journalists and media workers in Gaza, a number of whom have been killed in the course of their reporting duties. The Network has addressed these and related allegations in numerous public statements, including the following:

• End the Killings: Al Jazeera demands protection for journalists in Gaza (Link) 23 Oct 2024
• Al Jazeera urges immediate medical evacuation for its injured journalists in Gaza (Link) 22 Oct 2024
• Al Jazeera condemns the continued targeting of its journalists by the Israeli Occupation Forces (Link) 09 Oct 2024
• Al Jazeera denounces Israeli raid on Ramallah office, Vows to continue coverage of Gaza and occupied territories (Link) 22 Sep 2024
• Al Jazeera condemns the Israeli incitement against its correspondent Anas Al-Sharif and staff in Gaza (Link) 10 Aug 2024
• Al Jazeera refutes fabricated Israeli accusations against its journalist Ismail Al Ghoul (Link) 01 Aug 2024
• Israel Shuts Down Al Jazeera Offices (Link) 05 May 2024
• Al Jazeera: Netanyahu’s statements are lies that incite against the safety of our journalists around the world (Link) 01 Apr 2024
• Al Jazeera firmly rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ attempt to justify its crimes against journalists (Link) 15 Feb 2024
• Al Jazeera Strongly Condemns Targeted Killing of Journalists by Israeli Forces (Link) 22 Nov 2023
• Al Jazeera condemns the Israeli threat towards Al Jazeera English journalist Youmna Elsayed (Link) 30 Oct 2023
• Al Jazeera denounces Israeli incitement campaign against its journalists in Gaza (Link) 25 Jul 2025
• Starved, targeted, silenced: Al Jazeera calls for global action to protect Gaza’s journalists (Link) 23 Jul 2025

The Network categorically denies that it receives or follows operational editorial instructions from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or any other party to the conflict. Al Jazeera, like other major international news organizations covering this conflict, maintains standard journalistic contact with official spokespeople and representatives on all sides of a conflict, including Hamas and the Israeli military, both of whose press conferences and statements Al Jazeera broadcasts and reports on as part of its news coverage. This is ordinary newsgathering practice. The Network also notes, as set out in the same US litigation referenced above, that none of the individuals named in connection with these allegations are alleged to have been employed by Al Jazeera’s US entity, and that the allegations rest on after-the-fact characterizations made by the Israeli military rather than on any contemporaneous evidence of editorial control.

The claim regarding footage posted to a journalist’s personal social media account on 7 October 2023 is addressed more fully below. But in addition to those points, the Network notes that numerous local journalists and residents of Gaza recorded the unprecedented events unfolding around them that day. Personal social media activity posted to an individual’s private account is not attributable to Al Jazeera as editorial output, and is distinct from any content the Network itself broadcast or published on or after 7 October 2023.

Q5 Corrections and Retractions Policy: NewsGuard raises several examples where it believes AlJazeera.com did not issue correction or retraction notices after removing or updating content, including (i) the Shifa Hospital rape allegations; (ii) the Al-Ahli Hospital explosion documentary and related articles; (iii) articles discussing allegations of sexual violence on October 7.

Al Jazeera Media Network Response:

Al Jazeera maintains a corrections policy as part of its Code of Ethics and has a documented practice of publishing corrections, which are generally displayed prominently on corrected articles. Following a review of its corrections practices, the Network has identified instances, including those raised above, where corrections, edits, or removals were made without being clearly marked through the Network’s standard corrections notice. The Network acknowledges this inconsistency and is taking steps to ensure the standardized corrections notice is applied consistently across all content types, including features and opinion content, which have at times used inline editorial notes rather than the standard corrections box. The Network does not consider this an indication of a systemic failure to correct errors, but acknowledges the inconsistency identified and is committed to addressing it.

Q6 Transparency of Content Creators: Does AlJazeera.com provide sufficient biographical or contact information for content creators, and why do some articles remain unattributed?

Al Jazeera Media Network Response:

AlJazeera.com provides bylines for a substantial portion of its content; however, the Network recognizes that this is not yet applied consistently across all articles, and that biographical or contact information for individual content creators is not currently available for all bylined content. Al Jazeera has developed an updated byline policy intended to address this and is working towards consistent implementation across all types of content.

Q7 Staff Directory: NewsGuard notes that Al Jazeera previously indicated it would implement a staff directory. Is there any update or comment regarding this commitment

Al Jazeera Media Network Response:

The Network’s updated byline policy, referenced in the response to the previous question, is intended to address the underlying transparency objective that the staff directory commitment was also designed to meet. The Network is committed to providing clearer attribution and identification for its content creators and is working to implement this consistently across AlJazeera.com.

Q8 Ismail Abu Omar: Ismail Abu Omar still employed by Al Jazeera? If so, is he still a reporter or does he have another position?

Al Jazeera Media Network Response:

For clarity, Ismail Abu Omar was freelance contributor to Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA), not Al Jazeera English (AJE)/AlJazeera.com, which is the subject of this Nutrition Label review. His work for AJA was performed pursuant to a contract signed at the beginning of 2024. He was severely injured while reporting in the field in Rafah, Gaza, on 13 February 2024, and was evacuated to Qatar on 18 February 2024 for urgent medical treatment.

Given applicable legal obligations regarding personal and health-related information, Al Jazeera is not in a position to comment on the specifics of his medical treatment or current condition following his injury and medical treatment.

Regarding the specific claim that footage was posted to Mr. Abu Omar’s personal Telegram account on 7 October 2023 depicting the events of that day: this allegation is also the subject of pending litigation in the United States (Shnaider v. Al Jazeera Media Network, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-00538). Al Jazeera’s position, as a matter of public court record, is that even taking the plaintiffs’ allegations regarding this footage as given (which is the applicable legal standard at this stage of the case; Al Jazeera has not admitted that the allegation is true and has detailed the unreliability of claims based on reports of the Israeli military), the footage was posted to only to Mr. Abu Omar’s personal social media account, was not broadcast or published by Al Jazeera, and there is no basis to attribute personal social media activity to the Network. Al Jazeera further notes that it has not been alleged, in that litigation or elsewhere, that Mr. Abu Omar was acting as an Al Jazeera journalist, within the scope of any engagement with Al Jazeera, or with the Network’s knowledge, at the time the footage was filmed or posted.

Q9 Country Bans: NewsGuard’s current Nutrition Label states that Al Jazeera is banned in several Middle Eastern countries. Could you please confirm whether Al Jazeera is currently banned in any countries, and if so, which ones?

Al Jazeera Media Network Response:

Al Jazeera’s operations remain currently banned in Israel under a 2024 law permitting the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters deemed a threat to national security. The Israeli Knesset extended this law for a further two years in December 2025, and the Israeli Ministry of Communications most recently renewed the associated 90-day operational closure order in late April 2026. Al Jazeera’s offices in Jerusalem and, separately, in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, have been subject to closure orders, and the Network’s broadcasts and livestreams have been blocked from Israeli broadcast, internet, and platform providers operating in Israel. Al Jazeera has publicly condemned this ban as a violation of press freedom and continues to cover Israel and the region through alternative reporting arrangements.

Separately, the Palestinian Authority temporarily suspended Al Jazeera’s operations in the occupied West Bank in January 2025; that suspension was lifted by the Palestinian Authority in 2025, and the Network’s operations in Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank have since resumed. Al Jazeera has, at various points in its history, also faced restrictions in other countries in the region; as of the date of this response, the active and ongoing restriction is as described above with respect to Israel.

Al Jazeera Media Network remains committed to the journalistic standards and transparency practices reflected in its Code of Ethics and Editorial Standards and welcomes the opportunity to engage constructively with NewsGuard as part of its longstanding commitment to accountability and credibility. We trust the above responses will be taken into account in the finalization of the Nutrition Label for AlJazeera.com.