Basic principles of responsible journalism require clear reporting of the who, what, where, when, and why. In this case, the sentence refers to “the strike” without identifying the actors responsible for decapitating Iran’s Supreme Leader.
To the CBC Newsroom,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (www.cjpme.org) regarding the article published by CBC News on March 19, 2026 titled: “Israel keeps eliminating Iran's top leaders. How is it impacting the war?”
CBC’s analysis is insightful in highlighting Israel’s decapitation-attrition strategy of assassinating leadership, while also noting that Iran’s provincial military units retain a degree of autonomy, allowing them to continue launching offensives even after leadership has been decapitated.
However, my concern lies with the following sentence: “Iran was able to launch retaliatory strikes with missiles immediately after the strike on Feb. 28 that killed the supreme leader.”
Basic principles of responsible journalism require clear reporting of the who, what, where, when, and why. In this case, the sentence refers to “the strike” without identifying the actors responsible for decapitating Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed in U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on February 28.
This is also part of a broader media trend of failing to attribute Israel as the perpetrator. We often see headlines such as “strike kills 19” without attributing Israel or even mentioning Palestinians, as is the case in the Toronto Star: “Drone strike kills 3 in Gaza as Hamas prepares to transfer governance to new committee.”
We ask CBC News to revise this sentence to explicitly attribute the strike to U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, in line with the ethical standards outlined by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Ethics Guidelines.