Radio-Canada Wrong In Airing Pro-Palestinian Advocacy Film

Radio-Canada Wrong In Airing Pro-Palestinian Advocacy Film October 31, 2008   Dear HonestReporting Canada subscriber:     On October 23, Radio-Canada, the French arm of the CBC, aired the pro-Palestinian advocacy film "Peace, propaganda and the promised land" on its documentary film program "Les grands reportages". By airing a film rife with false premises, serious omissions, and unfounded malicious allegations, the network not only misinformed Canadians about the politics and history of the Middle East, it also breached its own journalistic standards and practices by airing a one-sided partisan polemic bent on vilifying a fellow democracy, the state of Israel.   Introducing the film, Radio-Canada host Simon Durivage's rhetorical questions and leading opinions parroted the film's anti-Israel thesis. To view the introduction click here or on the image below.   (Note: HRC English translation appears below) Durivage: "Peace, propaganda and the promised land. Do the American media view Israeli settlement of occupied territories as a defensive gesture only? ... According to Middle East experts, for forty years, the settlement policy of the Hebrew state has grown inside the occupied Palestinian territories. Result: daily violence on both the Palestinian and Israeli side. So what message do the American media convey regarding this interminable conflict? Do they distort the judgment of our southern neighbours?" Ironically, it's Radio-Canada and Durivage who have distorted the judgment of Canadian viewers by presenting the Arab narrative as fact by exclusively blaming violence on Israeli settlements and ignoring all other possible causes for the conflict. The film, which was produced in 2003/4 by the Media Education Foundation, an advocacy group whose mandate is to "answer the challenge posed by the radical and accelerating corporate threat to democracy" and whose board of advisors includes the likes of notorious anti-Israel activists like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, claims to show "the foreign policy interests of American political elites - working in combination with Israeli public relations strategies - exercise a powerful influence over news reporting about the Middle East conflict." To view the "documentary" in its entirety (80-minutes in length) please click here or on the image below. (Note: Radio-Canada aired an edited down and more condensed one-hour version of the film with French-language voice-overs) A New York Times review of the film found that the "pro-Palestinian documentary attempts to prosecute Israel in the court of U.S. public opinion", while noting that the "documentary largely ignores Palestinian leadership, which has surely played a part in the conflict's broken vows and broken hearts. And such a lack of dispassion weakens the one-sided film's bold and detailed argument." Likewise, a scholarly analysis of the film by Yitzhak Santis, the Director of Middle East Affairs for the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in 2004, noted that the film was full of "decontextualizations, disinformation, selective emphasis and blatant lies, lack of balancing perspectives, lack of citations/documentation to back up assertions of facts, omission of facts, and straw man argumentations." To read the full report online please click here. Among its many flaws, the film presents quotes from radical anti-Israel activists presenting them as if they were objective commentators to the conflict, it shows a series of news reports out of context and without explanation, and makes blanket statements about Israeli/Jewish attempts to control the media which are baseless and without merit. Furthermore, the film virtually ignores terrorism against Israeli civilians and the very well known Palestinian intimidation of the press. Santis' report concludes by noting that "It should be incumbent upon public television stations that hold the trust of its viewers to promote "truth in packaging" by informing its audience that this is not an objective study of media coverage of this conflict, but an advocacy piece with a political agenda." The film, which offered "special thanks" in its credits to pro-Palestinian organizations like: Electronic Intifadah, Al Awda, International Solidarity Movement, and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, was also dedicated in the memory of famous pro-Palestinian activist Edward Said. At a bare minimum, Radio-Canada should have tested the program against the organization's guidelines for "point-of-view documentaries in the sense of advocacy". According to Radio-Canada's guidelines for Journalistic Standards and Practices: "Great caution should be taken to protect the integrity of the Corporation's impartiality in information programming and its independence of special interest groups... In considering such works of opinion or argument for broadcast, the CBC (read Radio-Canada) has to assure fairness and balance by other means. The CBC should also guard against political or economic interest groups and lobbies exploiting this avenue." Radio-Canada asks its own programmers to apply various tests when deciding whether or nor to feature a particular documentary. It asks programmers to ensure that "a production should be of particular excellence and pertinence in the eyes of the CBC", that the film "should be prominently identified as a work of opinion at the beginning and at the end", that the "CBC must be completely satisfied that this work is financed independently from any party having a direct interest in the issue", that facts should be "respected and arguments should reasonably flow from those facts... to ensure that the argument presented does not rest on false evidence", and finally that "the broadcast of a clearly partisan production from a single perspective obligates the CBC to provide an appropriate reflection of other pertinent points of view." Using the national broadcaster's own guidelines, the film can't be defined as being of a "particular excellence" given its numerous errors and misrepresentations and its clear nature as an advocacy piece for pro-Palestinian propaganda purposes. Finally, as Radio-Canada has failed to provide alternative perspectives, the network failed to give "an appropriate reflection of other pertinent points of view" as a counterbalance. Radio-Canada has abdicated its responsibility to do the necessary due diligence and quality control checks which should have ensured that this film was not aired in the first place. While we do not endorse actions to censor the media, by the fact that this film failed to live up to Radio-Canada's own litmus test for documentary standards, it is incumbent upon the network to atone for its mistake in news judgment for airing this shoddy pro-Palestinian advocacy film.   What You Can Do To Make A Difference:  Tell Radio-Canada that its October 23 broadcast of "Peace, propaganda and the promised land" on "Les grands reportages" failed to inform its viewers that the film was not an objective study of media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but a pro-Palestinian advocacy tool with a political agenda, rife with errors and omissions that have seriously misled Canadians. Ask Radio-Canada to apologize, to conduct a formal review, and to implement stricter quality control protocols to ensure that this doesn't happen again. Please send polite and rational emails to Radio-Canada Ombudsman Julie Miville-Dechene at ombudsman@radio-canada.ca or call (514) 597-4757 to voice your concerns.   HonestReporting.ca   To support our continued efforts to hold the Canadian news media accountable for their reporting on Israel, please donate here today. Through your donations, you can help ensure that Canadian journalists are held to the highest standards of "Honest Reporting."     Or send a cheque to:   HonestReporting Canada PO Box 6, Station Q Toronto, Ontario M4T 2L7 (416) 915-9157   Thank you for your ongoing commitment to fair and accurate media coverage of Israel and the Middle East

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CBC Critically Examines Israel's Enemies

CBC Critically Examines Israel's Enemies September 16, 2008 By: Mike Fegelman Dear HonestReporting Canada subscriber:   More often than not, the Canadian and international media have sought fit to report on the Arab-Israeli conflict through the narrow lens of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   Reporting on the pervasive violence between Israelis and Palestinians, Western journalists employ conventional black and white narratives to a conflict which deserves colour, context, and clarity.   Whether as a result of a lowest common denominator way of thinking or due to a lack of contrarian thought, this dogmatic approach adopted by the Mideast media deceives news consumers into thinking they're getting a fair and complete representation of the region.   The result: Israel's legitimate security concerns get short shrift, Arab vs. Arab violence gets under reported, and human rights continue to be ignored in the broader Middle East.   When our public broadcaster, the CBC, went beyond this Mideast "conventional wisdom" and featured critical reporting on the Iranian nuclear threat and on the dangers of Hamas' rule in Gaza, it's important that we pause, take note, and expose excellence when it's deserving.   Iran's Existential Threat to Israel   On the August 27 edition of CBC's "The National," reporter Terry Milewski documented what a Persian night in Jerusalem would be like for the over 60,000 Iranian Jews now living in Israel, even though as he acknowledged "Iran's president threatens to wipe Israel off the map."   Milewski painstakingly analyzed the existential threat that Iran's nuclear program poses to Israel. He rhetorically asked: "But it's not just the Iranian Jews who are intensely interested in all things Persian. Israel, and the world beyond, is debating the looming question: should Israel strike at Iran's nuclear facilities before the mullahs get the bomb?"   To view the full 8-minute report please click here or on the image below:                                                 On CBC.ca, Milewski adapted this feature segment into a "Report From Abroad." In it he interviewed Menashe Amir who has been broadcasting to Iran on Israel's state-run radio for 48 years.   According to the report: "Amir said the West has failed to understand the Iranian threat. He believes the regime is opposed by most Iranians but is consumed by an apocalyptic vision: the triumph of Shia Islam [also known as Shiite] over the world. 'Western governments', he says, don't see that, for the Iranian mullahs, the destruction of the Jewish state is just a step along the way... But Amir points out, on the same day, in the same speech that Ahmadinejad called for wiping off Israel from the map, he added that the destruction of Israel is the first step of our final confrontation with western civilization... Amir says the regime dreams of a new caliphate - an Islamic empire spanning the globe."   In focusing a critical lens on the Iranian threat, Milewski's candid and thought provoking analysis brought necessary context to what could be an inevitable military confrontation between Israel and Iran.   The Specter of Hamastan   On the September 1 and 4 editions of CBC News Sunday and CBC Around the World, Milewski continued his whirlwind trip to the region with a second feature-length report. This time he analyzed the threat that Hamas poses in making the Gaza Strip a full-blown Islamic state.   Milewski set the tone of his report with an upfront acknowledgment that Hamas' well-oiled propaganda machine was playing it up for the CBC's cameras:   "In Gaza, the Islamic warriors of Hamas are preparing for war. At least it looks like they are, but in truth this is theatre. It's a photo-op to show the foreign media that Hamas is building an army to destroy the state of Israel. Such photo-op's are frequent since Hamas seized power in Gaza last year..."   To view the full 5-minute report please click here or on the image below:                                                His exclusive report (which was also adapted on CBC.ca) chronicled Hamas' intimidation of the media and Palestinian society at large, their threats to Palestinian security and stability as Hamas continues to "aim its guns inward." Milewski noted that Hamas really has "no program to end Gaza's isolation," how it refuses to recognize Israel, is boycotted as a terrorist organization, and how ordinary Palestinians desperately want peace with the Jewish state.   Milewski's in-depth report saw him secure an exclusive interview with Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar, (see photo above) whose irrational comments were almost laughable. Milewski noted that Zahar "Isn't going to evolve" and that for the "ideologists of Hamas... the goal is the extinction of Israel."   In conclusion Milewski boldly notes: "This in a nutshell, is Gaza's problem. Instead of adapting to its environment, Hamas expects the environment to change. As long as Hamas threatens to destroy Israel, Gaza remains isolated and wretched. Many Gazans will blame Hamas as well as Israel. So Hamas may have to keep its guns pointing inward."   How You Can Make A Difference   It's human nature that we're more likely to criticize than to give acclaim, but when investigative reporting reflects the highest standards of newsgathering, it's important that we recognize excellence. Terry Milewski's recent reporting on the threats that Iran and Hamas pose to Israel deserve to be commended.   Please send your considered comments to the CBC's Audience Relations department and refer to Terry Milewski's September 1 report on Hamas and his August 27 report on Iran.     HonestReporting.ca   To support our continued efforts to hold the Canadian news media accountable for their reporting on Israel, please donate here today. Through your donations, you can help ensure that Canadian journalists are held to the highest standards of "Honest Reporting."     Or send a cheque to:   HonestReporting Canada PO Box 6, Station Q Toronto, Ontario M4T 2L7 (416) 915-9157   Thank you for your ongoing commitment to fair and accurate media coverage of Israel and the Middle East

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Countering Canadian Media Canards

Countering Canadian Media Canards August 21, 2008 By: Mike Fegelman   Dear HonestReporting Canada subscriber: In recent weeks, the Canadian media has largely ignored the Middle East file. News coverage has been largely dominated with extensive reporting on the Beijing Olympics and wall-to-wall coverage of the battle for South Ossetia. That being said though, several Canadian media outlets including La Presse, CBC, and City TV, carried inaccurate reports and echoed activist's vicious canards which needed to be countered. The following are several examples where HRC intervened to ensure fair and accurate coverage of Israel.   The Myth of Occupied Gaza A popular myth continues to be promulgated by Israel's enemies and accepted as fact by the international and Canadian media. Proponents from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Montreal-area group Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) continue to claim that Israel is an occupying force of the Gaza Strip. Contrary to their allegations, occupation implies being able to impose your will on the occupied and as Israel disengaged from Gaza, removing over 8,500 settlers in the summer of 2005 and as it doesn't have any soldiers on the ground, this claim does not have any merit. Although Israel does carry out military incursions to thwart and disrupt terror cells, this does not qualify as "occupation," nor does any other claims that because Israel controls the sea/air access to Gaza that it's an "occupier." Currently, the only non-Palestinian force in Gaza is the UN and we don�t presume that the media would claim that it's "occupying" the Gaza Strip. On July 31, both CBC.ca and La Presse regurgitated these baseless claims from ISM and PAJU and presented them both as fact. After HonestReporting Canada intervened, the following corrections were issued by both respective media outlets on August 5 and 18: For more information on how you can counter the "occupation" slur, please see a scholarly analysis by Washington lawyers David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey entitled "The Myth of Occupied Gaza" as printed in the Washington Post. An Unforgivable Error and a Dismal "On-Air" Correction at City TV The August 14 broadcast of CityTV International carried a short report that caught our attention. The report centered on recent clashes at the construction site of the security barrier near Nilin, West Bank, between pro-Palestinian protestors and Israelis soldiers. City TV host Gord Martineau erroneously reported the following: "At least 11 people were killed at clashes between Israeli troops and protestors in a site at Israel�s controversial separation barrier in the West Bank." To watch the report online please click on the image below. Contrary to this statement, there were no deaths at clashes this past Thursday at Nilin. Instead, and as the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot confirms, several "protestors were reportedly hurt during clashes with forces in the area." This City TV report left viewers with the false impression that Israeli soldiers killed 11 protestors who were involved in an altercation at the barrier site. In consideration for the especially serious nature of this mistake, we asked City TV to issue an on-air correction to remedy this error. On August 18, the program issued the following "on-air" correction that appeared only in a text- super in the program's broadcast on other Mideast matters. It read as follows: "CNI (City News International) REPORT THURS. INDICATED 11 KILLED IN W. BANK CLASHES, MORE THAN 11 HURT, NOT KILLED." To watch the "on-air" correction please click on the image below. (Note: We apologize for the low-resolution image and video) If City TV were genuinely interested in setting the record straight, we would have expected their host to verbally orate the correction instead of carrying it as a short super embedded within another report, this time about Israel's efforts to release 200 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Most viewers probably didn't even notice the correction in the first place and even if they did, the language of the correction was so tersely worded that it wouldn�t have even come across as a correction. Many City TV viewers are still left with the false impression that Israeli soldiers bellicosely killed 11 pro-Palestinian protestors at last week�s clashes at Nilin. If you feel inclined to voice your concerns about City TV�s dismal August 18 correction, please send polite, rational, and considered comments to City TV publicist Veronica Logue at: veronica.logue@rci.rogers.com Notwithstanding, after receiving commitments from all three news organizations: City TV, La Presse, and CBC, to be more vigilant in the future when vetting reports for publication and for broadcast, we are satisfied that our concerns were addressed and given high priority by these Canadian media outlets.     HonestReporting.ca   To support our continued efforts to hold the Canadian news media accountable for their reporting on Israel, please donate here today. Through your donations, you can help ensure that Canadian journalists are held to the highest standards of "honest reporting."     Or send a cheque to:   HonestReporting Canada PO Box 6, Station Q Toronto, Ontario M4T 2L7 (416) 915-9157   Thank you for your ongoing commitment to fair and accurate media coverage of Israel and the Middle East

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Re-Send: "Activist's" Allegation Presented as Fact in Kingston Paper

Editor's Note: We apologize for sending this communique twice, however the original alert contained an incorrect email address for city editor Claude Scilley, please send letters to Claude at: cscilley@thewhig.com

"Activist's" Allegation Presented as Fact in Kingston Paper August 15, 2008 By: Mike Fegelman Dear HonestReporting Canada subscriber:   A recent HonestReporting.com communique advised readers to look local, noting that "the smaller media needs watching as well." While HonestReporting Canada regularly monitors Canadian media giants like the Globe and Mail, CTV, and CBC, we cannot ignore the influence and reach of smaller local Canadian media outlets. Writing in the Jerusalem Post recently, Ira Rifkin acknowledged the importance of monitoring your local media: "Think globally but act locally. Bogus anti-Israel claims must be contested, no matter how seemingly inconsequential the platform. Israel's narrative must be voiced - again and again and again, if necessary - so that public opinion is not molded by Israel's enemies alone." On that note, a local Kingston newspaper called the Whig-Standard carried a highly editorialized and problematic report on July 31 that caught our attention. Reporter Frank Armstrong detailed how a city "activist" originally from Kingston, had been arrested by Israeli authorities and deported back to Canada for his involvement in a protest at the construction site of the security barrier near Ni'lin, West Bank. A statement published by Israeli Defense officials noted that Victor MacDiarmid (see photo lower below) was "arrested for violating a closed military zone and (for) attacking two border police officers."   According to the lead of the article: "There are some things a young person should never have to know or feel - like the sharp retort of a bullet discharging from a hostile soldier's gun, the smash of a hard boot or rifle butt against one's skull, or the cool point of a machine gun barrel pressed into one's flesh. Kingston's Victor MacDiarmid, a 23-year-old University of Toronto student, experienced all of it in the last month, while volunteering in the West Bank for a Palestinian-led group that's protesting against Israeli occupation of Palestine." This feature-length report of over 1,100 words (which also appeared in the local Ottawa-area newspaper The Daily Observer) included the following problematic statement by reporter Armstrong in the concluding paragraphs of the report: "After two days of trying to get him to sign a statement written in Hebrew, police officers took him to a prison near the Tel Aviv airport where he was held with other foreigners until his flight home." As this claim was not attributed to any evidence, witness, or corroborating sources, we questioned how a reporter from Kingston was able to authoritatively confirm that a serious breach of protocol and a human rights violation had happened at an Israeli prison. If this sentence was attributed to a claim made by "activist" MacDiarmid then that is another matter altogether, but unfortunately Mr. Armstrong made this statement himself.   To allege, without any evidence, that Israeli authorities had tried to coerce a detainee into a signing a false statement, is especially problematic. While we appreciate that the Whig-Standard and reporter Armstrong acted in the best of intentions in researching and producing this report, notwithstanding, this statement was not couched in terms like "alleged" or "claimed" or otherwise attributed to "activist" MacDiarmid. In other words, this report claims with an unknown measure of authority, that this incident actually took place. As there's no evidence to confirm the veracity of this claim and in consideration for the especially serious nature of this allegation, we felt it was incumbent upon the Whig-Standard to issue a clarification as soon as possible to set the record straight. After contacting senior editors at the paper and communicating our concerns, the following clarification was printed in today's edition of the Whig-Standard:                                                           While we appreciate that the paper tried to remedy the situation by issuing this clarification, notwithstanding, by the fact that editors at the paper have elected to not include the original contentious statement ("After two days of trying to get him to sign a statement written in Hebrew...") in the clarification, readers are not able to conclude which statement of the July 31 report was without attribution. This ambiguous clarification therefore hasn't clarified anything at all and has only served to obfuscate the situation.   Furthermore, while the paper may wish to pass the buck and blame the Israeli Embassy for not getting back to their requests, this does not abrogate the paper or their reporter's responsibility to get the facts straight and to present the news in a fair and accurate manner.   How You Can Make A Difference   Tell Kingston Whig-Standard editor Claude Scilley that his paper's August 15 clarification was both dismal and unsatisfactory, as it didn't reference the original problematic statement ("After two days of trying to get him to sign a statement written in Hebrew...") that should have been attributed to MacDiarmid in the first place, but instead was presented as fact by reporter Armstrong.   Send letters to editor Claude Scilley at: cscilley@thewhig.com or call: (613) 544-4000 to voice your concerns.     HonestReporting.ca   To support our continued efforts to hold the Canadian news media accountable for their reporting on Israel, please donate here today.     Or send a cheque to:   HonestReporting Canada PO Box 6, Station Q Toronto, Ontario M4T 2L7 (416) 915-9157   Thank you for your ongoing commitment to fair and accurate media coverage of Israel and the Middle East

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"Activist's" Allegation Presented as Fact in Kingston Paper

"Activist's" Allegation Presented as Fact in Kingston Paper August 15, 2008 By: Mike Fegelman Dear HonestReporting Canada subscriber:   A recent HonestReporting.com communique advised readers to look local, noting that "the smaller media needs watching as well." While HonestReporting Canada regularly monitors Canadian media giants like the Globe and Mail, CTV, and CBC, we cannot ignore the influence and reach of smaller local Canadian media outlets. Writing in the Jerusalem Post recently, Ira Rifkin acknowledged the importance of monitoring your local media: "Think globally but act locally. Bogus anti-Israel claims must be contested, no matter how seemingly inconsequential the platform. Israel's narrative must be voiced - again and again and again, if necessary - so that public opinion is not molded by Israel's enemies alone." On that note, a local Kingston newspaper called the Whig-Standard carried a highly editorialized and problematic report on July 31 that caught our attention. Reporter Frank Armstrong detailed how a city "activist" originally from Kingston, had been arrested by Israeli authorities and deported back to Canada for his involvement in a protest at the construction site of the security barrier near Ni'lin, West Bank. A statement published by Israeli Defense officials noted that Victor MacDiarmid (see photo lower below) was "arrested for violating a closed military zone and (for) attacking two border police officers."   According to the lead of the article: "There are some things a young person should never have to know or feel - like the sharp retort of a bullet discharging from a hostile soldier's gun, the smash of a hard boot or rifle butt against one's skull, or the cool point of a machine gun barrel pressed into one's flesh. Kingston's Victor MacDiarmid, a 23-year-old University of Toronto student, experienced all of it in the last month, while volunteering in the West Bank for a Palestinian-led group that's protesting against Israeli occupation of Palestine." This feature-length report of over 1,100 words (which also appeared in the local Ottawa-area newspaper The Daily Observer) included the following problematic statement by reporter Armstrong in the concluding paragraphs of the report: "After two days of trying to get him to sign a statement written in Hebrew, police officers took him to a prison near the Tel Aviv airport where he was held with other foreigners until his flight home." As this claim was not attributed to any evidence, witness, or corroborating sources, we questioned how a reporter from Kingston was able to authoritatively confirm that a serious breach of protocol and a human rights violation had happened at an Israeli prison. If this sentence was attributed to a claim made by "activist" MacDiarmid then that is another matter altogether, but unfortunately Mr. Armstrong made this statement himself.   To allege, without any evidence, that Israeli authorities had tried to coerce a detainee into a signing a false statement, is especially problematic. While we appreciate that the Whig-Standard and reporter Armstrong acted in the best of intentions in researching and producing this report, notwithstanding, this statement was not couched in terms like "alleged" or "claimed" or otherwise attributed to "activist" MacDiarmid. In other words, this report claims with an unknown measure of authority, that this incident actually took place. As there's no evidence to confirm the veracity of this claim and in consideration for the especially serious nature of this allegation, we felt it was incumbent upon the Whig-Standard to issue a clarification as soon as possible to set the record straight. After contacting senior editors at the paper and communicating our concerns, the following clarification was printed in today's edition of the Whig-Standard:                                                           While we appreciate that the paper tried to remedy the situation by issuing this clarification, notwithstanding, by the fact that editors at the paper have elected to not include the original contentious statement ("After two days of trying to get him to sign a statement written in Hebrew...") in the clarification, readers are not able to conclude which statement of the July 31 report was without attribution. This ambiguous clarification therefore hasn't clarified anything at all and has only served to obfuscate the situation.   Furthermore, while the paper may wish to pass the buck and blame the Israeli Embassy for not getting back to their requests, this does not abrogate the paper or their reporter's responsibility to get the facts straight and to present the news in a fair and accurate manner.   How You Can Make A Difference   Tell Kingston Whig-Standard editor Claude Scilley that his paper's August 15 clarification was both dismal and unsatisfactory, as it didn't reference the original problematic statement ("After two days of trying to get him to sign a statement written in Hebrew...") that should have been attributed to MacDiarmid in the first place, but instead was presented as fact by reporter Armstrong.   Send letters to editor Claude Scilley at: cscillley@thewhig.com or call: (613) 544-4000 to voice your concerns.     HonestReporting.ca   To support our continued efforts to hold the Canadian news media accountable for their reporting on Israel, please donate here today.     Or send a cheque to:   HonestReporting Canada PO Box 6, Station Q Toronto, Ontario M4T 2L7 (416) 915-9157   Thank you for your ongoing commitment to fair and accurate media coverage of Israel and the Middle East

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