The Media Accountability Project  

Poor coverage - Media outlet to be critiqued

A CJPME Media Researcher has launched a media alert for the following article. Please submit a quick response to the media, even if it’s just a sentence or two:

Title of Piece: Kingston Whig-Standard: “Vigil marks 75th anniversary of Palestinian displacement"

Media Outlet: Kingston Whig-Standard

Comments of the CJPME Media Researcher:
(Note: Please do not copy and paste the material below as the content to your message to the media - put all comments in your own words):

On May 12, Kingston Whig-Standard published an article titled “Vigil marks 75th anniversary of Palestinian expulsion." The article correctly referred to the Nakba as a "catastrophe," which resulted in the dispossession, and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The article also represented the Nakba accurately as an "expulsion," in which Zionist militias intentionally sough to expel Palestinians and destroy, and depopulate Palestinians villages between 1947 and 1949

However, after a complaint by Honest Reporting Canada, a pro-Israel media watchdog that with a history of bullying journalists and media outlets that report anything even mildly critical of Israel and its policies, the article was significantly edited on May 16, resulting in a headline change and significant deletions of content.

The following changes were made:

• The headline was changed to replace the word “expulsion” with “displacement,” which downplays the fact that Palestinians were forced from their land and homes and creates a factually inaccurate portrayal of the 1948 Nakba.
• The english translation of the word "Nakba," meaning "catastrophe" was removed from the introductory paragraph.
• A section that described the conditions that Palestinians endure in the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank and in the diaspora was completely removed 

Not only did the edited version amount to a less accurate version of historical events, but it also actively erased Palestinian perspectives – which is particularly inappropriate given that the blurb was about their event.

Instead of fixing these issues, the Kingston Whig-Standard made it worse by un-publishing the article from their website as well as eight other media outlets, including Kingston This Week, County Weekly News, Pembroke Daily Observer and more. The removal of the article does not resolve nor provide any explanation or reason given for the edits. Rather, it worsens the issue by further removing Palestinian perspectives.

Please write to Kingston Whig-Standard Editor-in-Chief Steve Serviss to request for the article to be restored to its original version and republished.

Please click here to launch an email in which you can draft a response to this media coverage.

If you have any problems, please email [email protected].