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LATEST IMPACT: Toronto Star updates article to mention Israeli minister’s anti-Palestinian remarks

On May 25, 2023, the Toronto Star published an article on a forthcoming visit to Canada by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli. The article touched on Chikli’s far-right positions and associations but did not include any context about his racist and dangerous views against Palestinians. Chikli has called for the elimination of the Palestinian national identity, called Palestinian society “barbaric,” repeatedly compared Palestinians to Nazis, and says that annexing the occupied West Bank is “excellent." CJPME wrote to the Toronto Star on May 26 to request the inclusion of this information, noting that "Chikli and his far-right government present serious harms to many different groups of people, and Palestinians cannot be left out of this conversation.”

Following CJPME’s complaint, the article was updated later that day to note that “Chikli has also been called out by his critics for making anti-Palestinian remarks.” An editor’s note was added to say that “This story has been updated to provide more background on Amichai Chikli.”

CJPME had also taken issue with the Toronto Star’s description of Jerusalem Day, which was only described from Israel’s perspective as the “unification” of Jerusalem. CJPME requested an update to note that “unification” refers to the occupation and illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, but this change has not yet been made.

Pushing for better Middle East coverage in Canadian Media!

The Media Accountability Project (MAP) is an initiative of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) and was created to encourage Canadian media to provide professional and fair-minded coverage on the Middle East, especially Palestine-Israel.  The work of the MAP is based on professionally recognized journalistic ethics, as established by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, which direct journalists at all levels to provide accurate, fair, independent, transparent and diverse coverage.  Members of the Canadian public who wish to participate in the MAP's action alerts are invited to sign-up as "Media Responders."  Once registered, Media Responders will receive occasional emails encouraging them to follow up with a particular journalist or news outlet to demand improvemens to coverage.  Donate here to support our media accountability work!   

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