Journalism professors call on the New York Times to review report on 7 October sexual violence

Over 50 tenured professors from top universities signed a letter calling on the New York Times to address questions about a major investigation that described a "pattern of gender-based violence" during the Hamas-led 7 October attack on Israel.

The professors, coming from universities such as the New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Emory and the University of Texas, amongst others, said they felt the need to raise this issue after seeing "compelling reports" challenging the integrity of the story.

The reports include the relatives of a woman killed in the attack, whose story was central to the investigation, casting doubts on reporting suggesting that she was raped. Other critics pointed out discrepancies in various accounts by an eyewitness cited in the story.

The Times themselves reported in March that new video evidence "undercut" some details in their story, but did not issue a correction or a retraction. The journalism professors called this an "unusual decision".

The professors ask the Times to "immediately commission a group of journalism experts to conduct a thorough and full independent review of the reporting, editing and publishing processes for this story and release a report of the findings".