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As Hamas and Israel continue to exchange prisoners and hostages, journalists are documenting?shifting developments?with carefully chosen language that is backed by reporting. That means reporters must describe the exchanges themselves, the statements from both sides and the people who have been used as collateral.

On the first day of the ceasefire, Hamas released three women who had been kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel later released 90 people who were being held in detention. The journalists reporting on this exchange knew the names of the Israeli women that Hamas was releasing, because authorities had announced them, and their stories have been well-documented. Reporters knew very little about the Palestinians that Israel was releasing — not their names or ages.?

This difference in numbers is endemic to the conflict. There is profound suffering on both sides. Hamas killed 1,200 Israeli residents and kidnapped 251 people on Oct. 7, 2023. In an effort to destroy Hamas, Israel has killed more than 46,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials.

NPR's reporting documents the developments in the war, and seeks to help the American audience understand both the scope and the specific nature of the suffering.

As the ceasefire first took hold, an NPR correspondent reported on the pending exchange. He used the language that both sides used to describe the 90 people being freed by Israel, "women and males who are minors." Some listeners found it dehumanizing.

Critics often call out the language choices journalists make as they cover the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Behind the objection is the suggestion that journalists reveal their biases in the words they use.?

When journalists describe people in detail, the audience is more likely to care. Vague descriptions do the opposite. Pointing out inaccuracies or patterns of distortions can be helpful, particularly when they identify habits and patterns that journalists can correct.?

However, the volume of criticism directed at the news coverage out of the Middle East is substantial and at times counterproductive. It comes from both sides. And some of it is offered in bad faith, seeking not to improve the journalism, but to discredit the reporting.

The audience members who emailed us, tagged us on social media or commented on our Instagram posts objected to the reporter's vague description, because they wanted the public to recognize the humanity and vulnerability of the people Israel had detained in the same way that the women hostages were acknowledged.

The words the reporter used to describe the people released by Israel were, indeed, vague. We asked him about his thought process in choosing those words. Below, you'll find our analysis.

We also spotlight NPR's recent duPont Award (the equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize, but for broadcast), conferred last week on the team that has covered the war in Gaza. The award acknowledges the breadth of NPR's work.

Listeners bristle at word choice

Tariq Kenney-Shawa tweeted on Jan. 19: Listening on?@NPR?right now and one of their presenters described Palestinian children who are due to be released from Israeli prisons & torture dungeons, most of whom held without charges or trial, as “Palestinian males who are minors.” Otherwise known as “children.”the quote icon in the toolbar above. Do NOT turn on Pull Quote below!

Josh Donovan wrote on Jan. 20: Hello! WBUR listener and Middle East history professor here. I am writing to express my disgust at the “All Things Considered” segment on January 19th in which Greg Myre referred to Palestinian “males who are minors” being released from an Israeli prison. The word is “children.” Myre’s language is not only bizarre and clunky, it is dehumanizing and deliberately obscures the disturbing reality that Israel routinely detains Palestinian children indefinitely and without charge.

Susan Hatch wrote on Jan. 19: Why do you call Palestinian children “Palestinian males who are minors? … Why can’t you call minors “boys” and “girls”?

On Jan. 19, the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Weekend All Things Considered host Scott Detrow discussed the exchange of hostages and prisoners with national security correspondent Greg Myre, who was in Tel Aviv.

Myre described chaotic scenes in both Gaza and in Israel as three Israeli women, all of them civilians, were returned. Detrow pointed out that as part of the exchange, Israel was supposed to release almost 100 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. He asked if that had happened yet.

"No, Scott, it hasn't," Myre said. "It's now just past midnight here, early Monday, and the Palestinians still haven't been released from a prison in the West Bank. Palestinian women, and males who are minors, are set to be freed."

We called Myre in Tel Aviv to ask about the language choice. He told us it was the most accurate wording given the limited information available at the time of his report.

"What we knew on Sunday, when the ceasefire took effect, Hamas was going to release three Israelis, and the Israelis were going to release about 90, 95 Palestinians," Myre explained. "But we didn't have names, ages or any details about them."

Myre said the ceasefire got delayed. The Palestinians, who were supposed to be released in the afternoon, remained in Israeli custody.

"All we had was the Israelis and Palestinians saying that they're going to release women and minors on the male side. Didn't know their names, didn't know their ages. Legally speaking, it's like the US, 18 is adulthood, so we assume under 18, but they're kind of fuzzy on that here. … I knew there could be some wiggle room. That might not be a precise phrase, but that's what both the Israelis and Palestinians were saying."

The journalist said he thought seriously about calling them "teenagers," but he didn't have enough reporting to justify the word.

"I was pretty tempted to say 'teenagers' because I was almost certain they would be teenagers. But I didn't know," he said. "Some could be under, you know, 13, some could be 20 or 21, and that might sort of get lumped in with the minors. So I restrained."

Myre said he didn't want to call them children. "A child suggests it could be 5 years old or 10 years old, and that's not what we were talking about," he said.

When the names and ages were finally made public, it became clear that, had Myre used "children" or "boys," the word would have been inaccurate. "Teenagers" would have worked as an assumption, but assuming facts is a bad journalistic practice.

One of those released was 19 years old. Twelve of them were 18, seven of them were 17 and one was 15. This list of prisoners was published by Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned international news service. Al Jazeera describes the group as "69 women and 21 children."

Myre has covered the Middle East since 1991. He worked for The New York Times and the Associated Press before coming to NPR, and he coauthored a book on the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That experience doesn't make him infallible. But it has heightened his awareness that media critics on both sides are scrutinizing every decision that news organizations make.

"Anytime they make a factual claim, we should deal with it," Myre said. But most of the time, critics are simply trying to discredit journalists who don't promote their cause. "The Palestinian activists want us to say 'children' all the time. The Israelis want us to say 'terrorists' all the time. And neither of those words would have been accurate in this case."

When they can predict an admonishment, as in this case, Myre and other reporters could insert an extra sentence in their reporting that explains why they are using vague descriptions. It's clunky, particularly in broadcast, but it might head off this discussion.

Those objecting to this particular word choice were suggesting that the reporter deliberately selected a less-humanizing word as a result of bias, either overt or unconscious. In fact, the word choice on that evening mimicked both Israeli and Palestinian officials. While it was vague, it was the best option available at the time of the reporting. — Kelly McBride and Amaris Castillo

NPR awarded a duPont-Columbia Award for war in Gaza coverage

NPR last week won a 2025 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award?for outstanding public service in audio and video reporting for its coverage of the war in Gaza. The judges said NPR's coverage of the armed conflict "exhibited ingenuity and sensitivity at great risk, getting behind the politics to show how the conflict has affected the men, women and children on all sides." Since Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the NPR Mideast reporting team has brought us regular developments of the war as well as stories about the price Palestinians pay to leave Gaza, the pain and frustration experienced by the families of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, and a mother and baby from Gaza reunited.

At the awards ceremony?, NPR international correspondent Daniel Estrin spoke on behalf of the team. "We are a team of Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, Jews, Christians, Muslims, but most of all we are one tribe, and that is journalists," he said, "From day one, we have had a mission, and that mission is to bring our listeners into the hospital or into the killing field to listen to somebody else's pain, knowing that many listeners would bristle," he said. "But when you hear that quivering voice hitting your ear, it's like they're speaking directly to you. Some listeners have written and told us that those voices move them to see things differently. We're public media, that's what we do."

You can see the names of everyone who is named on the award in this citation. — Amaris Castillo

The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Reporters Amaris Castillo and Nicole Slaughter Graham and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all of your messages on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and from our inbox. As always, keep them coming.

Kelly McBride
NPR Public Editor
Chair,?Craig Newmark Center for Ethics & Leadership at the Poynter Institute