"Mansour Shouman’s case has been relatively well-documented, yet this article omits key details, like his role as a citizen journalist and eyewitness accounts of Shouman being arrested by the IDF, as reported by CTV News."
January 29, 2023
To:
Amanda Connolly, National Online Managing Editor, Global News
Andrea Baillie, Editor-in-Chief, The Canadian Press
Tim Cook, Managing Editor, The Canadian Press
Dear Global News,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East to express my concern regarding the Canadian Press article, “Canadian-Palestinian citizen journalist reported missing in Gaza,” published on January 28 by Global News.
For an article that is reporting on a missing Palestinian-Canadian journalist in Gaza, it lacks critical information and tells an incomplete story. Mansour Shouman’s case has been relatively well-documented, yet this article omits key details, like his role as a citizen journalist and eyewitness accounts of Shouman being arrested by the IDF, as reported by CTV News. By failing to provide the necessary context for the reader, the article does not uphold the journalistic principle of accuracy. Without adequate context, the article leaves room for false conclusions on the part of the reader, based on incomplete information.
Secondly, there is no context provided regarding the events of Oct. 7 and Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza. Casualties or damages incurred are only vaguely described at the very end of the article:
War has been raging on between Israel and Hamas since October, resulting in thousands of lives lost.
This sentence is a weak attempt at reporting the damage and casualties incurred since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza. 1,139 people were killed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7 and over 26,500 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since. Attributing the “lives lost” to an ambiguous “war” that has been “raging on” muddles reality and absolves Israel of any responsibility as the perpetrator of a death toll that is disproportionately Palestinian. It also suggests that the death toll is symmetrical, which is false. To value and humanize Palestinian lives equally to Israeli lives, I would recommend editing this sentence to: “Since Hamas’ attacks that killed 1,139 people in Israel on Oct. 7, Israel’s military campaign has killed over 26,500 Palestinians.”
The final component of your article that could be considered offensive and requires immediate attention is the unrelated video clip embedded between the headline and the content of the article. This video appears to be about the Israeli Canadian citizen who has recently been confirmed dead following the attack perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7. While this information is important for readers to be aware of, embedding it before content related to a missing Palestinian-Canadian citizen journalist is highly inappropriate. Images or videos embedded in an article should work to substantively support the actual news article, not to introduce an unrelated piece of information. I, therefore, ask that you remove this unrelated video from the beginning of the article.
I hope that Global News and The Canadian Press will make these edits promptly.
Sincerely,
Rose Mardikian,
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East