"By choosing to give a prominent, unchallenged platform to a pro-Israel lobby group while ignoring the very students responsible for negotiating the agreements, CTV News is effectively erasing Palestinian perspectives and perpetuating the racist trope that Palestinian activism is illegitimate, dangerous, or antisemitic by default."
February 5, 2025
To:
Melissa Schultz, News Director, CTV Windsor
Michelle Maluske, CTV News Windsor journalist
Lori Berg, Producer, CTV Windsor
Dear CTV Windsor newsroom,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) to express concern over your recent article, “They should not be left to stand”: University of Windsor agreements face legal challenge. This report fails to meet basic journalistic standards of fairness and balance, offering an uncritical platform for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) while excluding the perspectives of the student organizers directly involved in the University of Windsor agreements.
The article heavily amplifies CIJA’s claims that the agreements “foster an atmosphere of antisemitism” without offering counter arguments from the students who fought for these agreements.
Despite the fact that the Palestinian Solidarity Group (PSGU) and the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance (UWSA) were directly involved in the negotiations, they were not even contacted for comment. Instead, the article recycles old quotes from student protesters, rather than providing a balanced, up-to-date perspective. This omission is a clear failure of journalistic due diligence and a deliberate choice to privilege pro-Israel voices while sidelining Palestinian and pro-Palestinian perspectives.
This biased approach is not an isolated incident but rather a consistent pattern in CTV News’ coverage. In fact, a UWSA student came to CJPME’s media team to raise the alarm over CTV News Windsor deliberately excluding pro-Palestine students from coverage on these negotiations.
This is the statement we received:
“The article shows bias once again, painting the University of Windsor students as anti-Semitic and sharing the efforts of CIJA to take the university to court and have the agreement overturned. The PSGU students or Liberation Zone students were not even contacted for a statement, which has been the case every time. They just keep using old quotes every time there’s an article. The student group needs support.”
This failure to seek comment from direct stakeholders while boosting CIJA’s claims without skepticism violates fundamental principles of journalistic integrity, as outlined in the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Ethics Guidelines. Journalism should seek out diverse perspectives, especially from those directly affected by the issue. By systematically ignoring Palestinian and pro-Palestinian student voices, CTV News is not only engaging in one-sided reporting but also actively shaping a narrative that delegitimizes pro-Palestinian activism.
This failure to seek comment from direct stakeholders while boosting CIJA’s claims without skepticism is not just a violation of journalistic integrity, it also constitutes anti-Palestinian racism as rigorously defined by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association’s definition.
By choosing to give a prominent, unchallenged platform to a pro-Israel lobby group while ignoring the very students responsible for negotiating the agreements, CTV News is effectively erasing Palestinian perspectives and perpetuating the racist trope that Palestinian activism is illegitimate, dangerous, or antisemitic by default.
This imbalance in coverage directly contributes to the wider media one-sidedness against Palestinian voices, where pro-Israel organizations are treated as credible, neutral sources, while Palestinian students and activists are either ignored or vilified. It also upholds the double standard in media reporting, where Jewish and pro-Israel concerns are prioritized and validated, but Palestinian perspectives rooted in international law and human rights advocacy are marginalized or silenced.
This is a dangerous and irresponsible practice that must be corrected. If CTV wishes to maintain any credibility as a serious news organization, it must correct this imbalance immediately by ensuring that all relevant perspectives—including those of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students—are included in future reporting.
I sincerely hope that CTV News Windsor takes these concerns seriously and adjust its reporting accordingly. will be closely monitoring your coverage of Palestine, and if this imbalance continues, I will have no choice but to file a complaint with the National NewsMedia Council.
I await your response.
Anthony Issa
Media Analyst
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East