The Associated Press (AP) have asked a court to dismiss a $6.8 million lawsuit over the agency’s use of freelance photojournalists who were allegedly “embedded with Hamas” to cover the October 7 attacks — arguing that the legal action strikes “a fatal blow” to freedom of press.
In February, survivors of the October 7 attacks on Israel filed a lawsuit against AP — accusing them of “materially supporting terrorism” by paying alleged Hamas-associated photojournalists for images captured during and immediately after the invasion that day.
The plaintiffs — which included Israeli-Americans and Americans who attended the Nova music festival raided by Hamas as well as the loved ones of victims — claimed that AP has aided and abetted the terrorist organization by using these freelance photographers. The plaintiffs are seeking seeking $6.8 million (NIS 25 million) in damages from AP.
According to The Times of Israel, AP have now asked the Jerusalem District Court to dismiss the lawsuit.
In defense statements filed on Thursday to the Jerusalem District Court, AP argued that the plaintiffs’ lawsuit would strike “a fatal blow” to freedom of press and freedom of speech, and would limit the freedom of media outlets operating in Israel in the future.
According to The Times of Israel, AP noted that the photojournalists it had purchased photographs from were not AP employees but independent photographers, and that therefore the agency did not assign them to cover the Hamas assault.
But it also contended that the photos and videos it published from those photojournalists provided “a better understanding of the nature and extent of the atrocities,” and that a ruling in favor of the damages suit would harm the public’s “right to know and recognize reality, even when it is disturbing and shocking.”
The photo agency says it sympathized with the plaintiffs and those affected by the October 7 attacks, but rejected the claims in the lawsuit.
“The entire lawsuit is built on the (erroneous) basic assumption that the independent photographers who took photos and videos from the October 7, 2023 attack, which AP purchased and published, were employees of AP, or acted in some other way on its behalf and according to its instructions,” attorneys for AP say in the defense statement.
The plaintiffs’ lawsuit mentions the names of four freelance photographers whose work was purchased and published by AP and claims that the four are “known Hamas associates who were gleefully embedded with the Hamas terrorists during the October 7 attacks.”
However, the majority of the lawsuit reportedly focuses on one photojournalist, Hassan Eslaiah — who CNN severed ties with for allegedly having links to Hamas.