On December 12, 2023, CJPME is proud to announce that we won a case with the National NewsMedia Council, the body in Canada responsible for making judgements about journalistic standard violations. On November 2, the NNC announced that it had upheld CJPME’s complaint against the Kingston Whig-Standard for its violation of important journalistic principles.
The Kingston Whig-Standard unpublished an article about a pro-Palestine event following pressure from pro-Israel advocacy groups. CJPME complained that unpublishing the article was a violation and the NNC affirmed that position. The NNC decision states:
Similarly, removing content on the basis of strong objections from readers or so-called ‘pressure campaigns’ from advocacy organizations is not in accordance with journalistic standards.
While the NNC is mindful of the pressures on community news organizations and supports the newsroom’s objective to find a solution to concerns raised about accuracy and context in divisive matters such as these, the steps taken to address such concerns must be journalistically sound.
For the reasons outlined above, Council upheld the complaint about unpublishing the article.
You can read more about the case and the reasons for the Council’s decision here.