The Media Accountability Project  

Ethics violation - Media outlet to be criticized

A CJPME Media Researcher has launched a media alert for the following article. Please submit a quick response to the media, even if it’s just a sentence or two:

Title of Piece: Information Morning in Halifax: "New book club invites people in Halifax to learn more about Palestinians"

Media Outlet: CBC
Click here to listen to the radio segment on-line

You can also read the transcript here.

Comments of the CJPME Media Researcher:
(Note: Please do not copy and paste the material below as the content to your message to the media - put all comments in your own words):
On August 22, CBC Information Morning in Halifax, a Radio One program, aired an interview with Yara Jamal of Free Palestine, Halifax about a new book club. That morning, the segment was uploaded to the Information Morning website, as well as the CBC’s national news website. Shortly thereafter, both of the websites inexplicably removed the segments. As of now, the segment is only available on the link we provided above, iVoox, which is not an official CBC website. The CBC's original link can be viewed here, but, at the time of writing, it only displays an error message.

Here is a brief excerpt from the powerful interview with Yara Jamal:

"Honestly, just open up your hearts. There are kids involved, whether it's Israeli children or Palestinian children, it doesn't matter, those are children who are involved. Also, use the resources that you're so privileged to have - whether it's social media, the internet, the news, whatever it is, because reputable human rights organization have called it 'apartheid' - so those are not my words.”

Unpublishing, as it is called in journalism, is an exceptional action reserved only for the most serious circumstances, typically involving legal or safety issues. CBC Journalistic Standards and Practices states:

“Our published content is a matter of public record. To change the content of previously published material alters that record. Altering the record could undermine our credibility and the public’s trust in our journalism.”

That CBC would unpublish an interview with a Palestinian woman should be alarming to everyone concerned with media ethics - it is a grave violation.  As of yet, CJPME has yet to receive any satisfactory explanation for why the segment was removed.

Please express your concern about this highly unethical incident, and demand that CBC republish the segment and carry out a transparent investigation into why and how this happened.

Please click here to launch an email in which you can draft a response to this media coverage. If this link does not work for you, simply open an email in your email program, address it to [email protected], [email protected], and draft and send your email.

If you have any problems, please email [email protected].

Thank you very much. Every response makes a difference.

The CJPME Media Centre Team
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