Annual Report 2025

Not every story lands the same way. But every story lands.

It has been a complex year for Shomrim’s reporting. Yet Shomrim continues to demand accountability and systematically track the impact of its work beyond publication, recognizing that a story’s life often begins, rather than ends, when it is published. Some stories only Shomrim can bring to light; even without immediate or visible outcomes, placing them in the public domain holds inherent value.

In 2025, 78 stories reached the level of public exposure. For example, a February investigation showed that political corruption in Israel had not disappeared — rather, police investigations into it had. While no formal response followed, the reporting placed the issue firmly on the public agenda. Other stories gained wider media reach: Shomrim’s reporting on U.S. plans for a military base near Gaza was followed up by Bloomberg and published in Yedioth Ahronoth, The Times of Israel and Calcalist. At the highest level, some investigations led to concrete outcomes, showing Accountability in Action. A conflict-of-interest exposé in a Defense Ministry procurement process resulted in the cancellation of a tender, while reporting on hospital wards and medical residents in Israel’s periphery prompted the Ministry of Health to establish a working group to reform the residency system.

The same 175 stories, viewed through different lens. This time, the canvas reveals which themes each story engages. Ten thematic areas emerge. Each theme highlights its stories in a distinct color, though many stories span multiple themes, reflecting the interconnected nature of power.

In 2025, the events of October 7 and their long-term societal consequences continued to shape Israeli institutions, public discourse, and Shomrim’s newsroom priorities.

Across all areas of coverage—whether environmental issues, democratic institutions and the rule of law, marginalized communities, or social welfare—Shomrim’s reporting was guided by a consistent democratic lens: safeguarding citizens’ rights in relation to institutions and those in positions of power.

At its core, Shomrim’s work engaged with the fabric of Israeli democracy at a time when it is being actively challenged. In a country engaged in an ongoing struggle over its democratic character, bringing these issues to light is not only journalistic work—it is part of the broader effort to defend and uphold democratic foundations.

Accountability journalism is not a single method and this year underscored that reality.

Some stories demand speed; others require time measured in months of source-building, document gathering, and carefully constructed evidence. Some call for both. Some require proximity- spending time with people to understand lived realities, while others demand analytical clarity to explain not only what happened - but why it was allowed to happen.

The largest category, 60 short-term investigations, reflects a year that moved quickly and required constant vigilance and responsiveness.

A long-form investigation into a black market for dangerous drugs - required sustained, meticulous reporting. A fast-moving investigation into a pollution threat to a major water reservoir led to a Knesset committee discussion within weeks, while still requiring ongoing follow-up.

A feature on Nova Festival survivors demanded time and close engagement to document their ongoing struggles. A follow-up on safety failures in the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline required persistence in revisiting an issue the system might have preferred to overlook, until it reached parliamentary attention. And an explanatory piece on the systematic weakening of Israel’s gatekeeping institutions provided the broader context that helped make sense of many of the year’s investigations.

A story doesn't end when it's published. Sometimes it's only just beginning.

In 2025, 91 Shomrim investigations extended beyond the newsroom, reaching 45 media outlets in Israel and abroad and generating 139 republications. More than half of Shomrim’s reporting was picked up by additional outlets, significantly expanding its reach and influence.

Shomrim’s work also reached diverse audiences across Israeli society: Haredi readers through Behadrei Haredim, Arabic-speaking audiences through Bokra, Russian-speaking listeners via Reka Radio, and English-speaking readers through The Times of Israel.

Shomrim’s reporting also gained international traction. In 2025, its investigations were featured in 19 global media outlets. A story on a Palestinian businessman positioned as a potential post-war leader in Gaza was picked up by 17 outlets worldwide, including BBC Arabic, La repubblica, and Sky News Arabic. Another story exposing suspected Israeli involvement in a child abduction case in Germany, was featured exclusively by Der Spiegel.

Together, this reflects a consistent pattern: one newsroom producing work that resonates far beyond its walls, shaping public discourse across multiple platforms, languages, and countries.

By refusing to treat a story as a one-time event.

The issues Shomrim covers cannot be reduced to a single publication; they require depth, context, and sustained attention to fully understand and address. Shomrim’s approach is to uncover the layers of a story and stay with it—returning again and again to deepen the reporting, add new perspectives, and push toward real-world outcomes.

In a fast-paced media environment like Israel’s, where attention quickly shifts and breaking news dominates, this kind of persistence is rare. But it is essential. Accountability is not achieved through exposure alone -it requires follow-up, pressure, and continuity over time.

In practice, this means tracking issues long after publication. In 2025, for example, Shomrim continued to follow the growing use of opioids in Israel, examining how the war in Gaza introduced new risks through the treatment of injured soldiers. In another case, Shomrim revealed that the Ministry of National Security had withheld funding from a drug addiction treatment program, putting it at risk of closure. The investigation led to a Knesset discussion, and through continued follow-up, the funding was ultimately approved and released.

This is how reporting becomes accountability: through persistence, continuity, and a commitment to see stories through until change begins to take shape.

Some stories don’t change institutions - they change how people see reality

Not every story that matters leads to an immediate institutional response. Some investigations drive policy change - but others create a different kind of impact by moving people.

To better understand this dimension, we introduced an additional lens: human proximity. We mapped 76 selected stories along a spectrum - from policy and power at one end, to lived human experience at the other. In between are the stories where institutional decisions directly shape people’s lives. Each story was assessed not only for what it exposed, but for how closely it captured the human reality behind it.

At one end are deeply personal accounts: families of the Majdal Shams victims expressing grief that has gone unacknowledged by institutions, or children in Haredi schools carrying the silent consequences of violence. At the center are stories where systems and lives intersect: a government decision to withhold funding from a drug harm-reduction program became a community left without support - until public attention led to a Knesset intervention and the restoration of funds. Similarly, reporting on wounded soldiers revealed a second, less visible struggle - with opioid dependency emerging during rehabilitation.

Empathy does not always produce immediate policy outcomes. But it creates presence. It brings people into focus and makes their reality visible in ways that cannot be ignored. Some of the most powerful journalism in this body of work did not trigger formal decisions - it did something just as essential: it ensured that those affected were seen, heard, and accounted for.