"There are countless testimonies provided by Palestinians who have been released from Israeli prisons since October 7. Every testimony is horrifying. Cases of physical and psychological torture, starvation, and sexual abuse are endless, yet CBC has chronically underreported these Palestinian accounts of arbitrary arrest and then acute abuse in prisons."
May 13, 2024
To:
Sarah Ramsaran, Journalist, CBC News
Nancy Waugh, Managing Editor, CBC News
Dear Sarah Ramsaran,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East to express concern regarding a recent article titled “‘We were very afraid’: Former hostage speaks about surviving Hamas captivity in Gaza,” published on May 12 in CBC News.
Though I could criticize several of this article’s oversights– like its one-sidedness and its lack of context– CBC News often points to the sum of its reporting to deflect such complaints and avoid making any changes. Beyond vague word choice and obvious bias, this article demonstrates a deep hole in CBC’s reporting.
While articles written about Palestinian prisoners who have been released from Israeli captivity have been relatively sparse at CBC, testimonies from Israeli captives have been incredibly well-documented. Conducting two searches using Google’s advanced search engine yielded notable, yet unsurprising results. After searching for any CBC article published within the last month containing the phrase “Israeli hostage,” about five articles/videos appeared, all of which were either centered on one or two Israeli hostages or included testimony from at least one. Only two articles appeared after searching “Palestinian prisoner.” In both articles, these words were only included as part of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organization.
There are countless testimonies provided by Palestinians who have been released from Israeli prisons since October 7. Every testimony is horrifying. Cases of physical and psychological torture, starvation, and sexual abuse are endless, yet CBC has chronically underreported these Palestinian accounts of arbitrary arrest and then acute abuse in prisons. Even worse, CNN recently exposed the abuse of Palestinians in an Israeli detention center and CBC hasn’t covered this developing story. The Israeli whistleblowers interviewed by CNN paint an incredibly bleak picture: wounds left by medical staff to rot, blindfolded prisoners wearing diapers and being handcuffed to their beds, and others fed through straws. Albeit shocking, these findings are consistent with the constant flow of Palestinians dying in Israeli prisons and detention centers before and after Oct. 7. Why is CBC reporting on Israeli hostages more than Palestinian prisoners?
Though I am not necessarily recommending that CBC stop reporting on Israeli testimonies on their experiences as hostages in Gaza, I implore CBC to consider the whole of their reporting portfolio and which subjects may be over or under-saturated.
Sincerely,
Rose Mardikian,
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East