At minimum, the segment should have acknowledged that many of the Palestinian bodies previously returned have shown signs of torture, malnutrition, and abuse, some discovered blindfolded for days.
To the CBC Newsroom,
I am writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East regarding your one-sided news segment: “Israel confirms identities of 3 deceased soldiers returned by Hamas.”
In the five-minute report on “body exchanges” between Israel and Hamas, your reporting treats 45 “Palestinian bodies” as numbers meriting a single mention but treats Israeli soldiers as human beings defending their families and their land, providing the viewer with extensive information. This was an “exchange,” so this issue can only be described as a double standard, because one side of that exchange is given less time, less empathy, and less importance. This is not balanced reporting.
At minimum, the segment should have acknowledged that many of the Palestinian bodies previously returned have shown signs of torture, malnutrition, and abuse, some discovered blindfolded for days.
Amnesty, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, BBC, and other media outlets and human rights organizations have independently verified and documented Israel’s detention system – one that’s characterized with entrenching the humiliation, neglect and torture, degradation of Palestinians. One of the most shocking documented cases involves verified footage from the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel, showing guards gang-raping a Palestinian detainee. The victim’s injuries were so severe that he was unable to walk, with medical records revealing internal ruptures and broken ribs.
Palestinians endure horrifying conditions in Israeli detention facilities, essential context that needs to be added when reporting on Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody or about body exchanges on both sides.
We anticipate that CBC will excuse this unfair coverage by claiming that “over time” the broadcaster is balanced. We do not agree. This situation is representative of so much coverage at the CBC, in Canada in general - a trend we have seen for a long time in our media and the data bears that out.
Lynn Naji
Media analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East