Matti Friedman, a Canadian-Israeli journalist and former Associated Press reporter, revealed how the news agency quietly scrubbed details that cast Hamas in a negative light—often under direct threats from the terror group.

“I was a reporter for the AP. Between 2006 and the very end of 2011, as far as I know, I was the first staffer to erase information from the story because we were threatened by Hamas, which happened at the very end of 2011, and a great reporter in Gaza, Palestinian, who had always been really an excellent reporter. We had a detail in a story, and the detail was a crucial one. It was that Hamas fighters were dressed as civilians and were being counted as civilians in the death toll, and that went out in Navy’s story. He called me a few hours later, and he said, “Matzi, have to take that detail out of the story.” And it was clear that someone had threatened him.

I took the detail out of the story. I suggested to our editors that we note an editor’s note that we were now complying with Hamas censorship. I was overruled. From that point in time, the AP, like all of its sister organizations, collaborates with Hamas censorship in Gaza.