On June 21, 2023, CJPME received a letter of apology from the Director of News & Information Programming at Bell Media. The letter acknowledged that CJAD 800, a Montreal-based radio station, made false claims about Roger Waters during a news broadcast. The false claims were part of a media smear campaign that unfairly characterized Waters as a Nazi-sympathizer in ways that demeaned his advocacy for Palestinian human rights. Following the broadcast, a CJPME media analyst launched a complaint with The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC), a national voluntary self-regulatory organization created by Canadian television and radio broadcasters to adjudicate viewer or listener complaints. The letter of apology CJPME received is a result of this process. Here is an excerpt from the letter from Bell Media:
“After reviewing articles published in the days following the initial story, it appears that the Star of David image was not used at the 2023 concert but at another Waters concert at least 10-years ago. We apologize for the error and any resulting confusion. We appreciate that you took the time to write to the CBSC. We note that the false information, about the Star of David, came to us from reputable international news agencies, and would have been quite difficult to verify locally, but we will, nonetheless, endeavor to be more thorough in the future.”
To read CJPME’s original letter of complaint, click here.