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CJPME is deeply alarmed by the editorial correction recently issued by The Globe and Mail after a pressure campaign by pro-Israel lobby group HonestReporting Canada (HRC). After this intervention, The Globe and Mail issued a correction replacing the phrase “Palestinian hostages” with “Palestinian prisoners.” While the correction was framed as a factual clarification, the term prisoner in this context is used to sanitize Israel’s widespread use of administrative detention and obfuscate the reality that many Palestinians held by Israel have never been charged or convicted of a crime. There was nothing false about calling the Palestinians mentioned in the article "hostages," it is a suitable descriptor, and it is in fact less accurate to portray them all as "prisoners" for reasons described below.
While the correction may appear minor, it reflects a broader pattern in Canadian media coverage that misleads readers about the legal reality facing many Palestinians held in Israeli detention, where Palestinian detainees face physical torture, psychological abuse during interrogation, and humiliating treatment in under Israel’s administrative detention policy.
We ask that media responders demand accountability. Here are some optional angles:
- Thousands of Palestinians are currently imprisoned under Israel’s administrative detention policy, which allows authorities to detain individuals without charge or trial for renewable six-month periods based on secret evidence that neither the detainee nor their lawyer can review. As a result, Palestinian civilians including activists, journalists, children, and civilians are effectively hostages, held for months or years without charge or fair trial under Israel’s administrative detention policy.
- Merriam-Webster defines a hostage as "a person held by one party in a conflict as a pledge pending the fulfillment of an agreement," which is exactly what occurred in the case of exchanges of Palestinians and Israelis.
- Referring to Palestinians simply as “prisoners” misleadingly suggests that they were lawfully convicted through a fair judicial process. In reality, many are detainees held indefinitely without due process in a military court system that has a conviction rate exceeding 99 per cent.
- When reporting on prisoner or hostage exchanges between Israel and Palestinian groups, media outlets have a responsibility to provide readers with this crucial context. Failing to explain Israel’s administrative detention system downplays the illegality of their detention as Palestinians are not convicted prisoners in the conventional sense, subjected to severe human rights abuses, and denied fair trials under Israel’s administrative detention policy.
- The Globe and Mail's Editorial Code of Conduct states, "The Globe and Mail will seek to provide reasonable accounts of competing views in any controversy so as to enable readers to make up their own minds." In this case, The Globe caved to pressure, deleted a controversial term, and added a correction that totally eliminates the key controversial elements.
CJPME urges respondents to write to The Globe and Mail to raise concerns about this correction. Responsible journalism requires accurately explaining the legal status of Palestinian detainees and acknowledging the widespread use of detention without charge or trial.