The Media Accountability Project  

"While it is accurate that Al-Quds Day originated in Iran in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution, the broadcast presented this fact in a manner that reduces the pluralistic aspect of these protests into a single state-driven narrative originating from Iran. This framing strips away the varied motivations of the different civil society groups that attend these demonstrations held in numerous countries." Continue reading

Without including this information, readers are left with the misleading impression that only Iran is using the ‘oil weapon’ when in reality Israel, in collaboration with the United States, is also using the ‘oil weapon’. Your headline ‘Iran is using the oil weapon’ further reinforces this misperception. Continue reading

According to the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Ethics Guidelines, journalists must ensure reporting is accurate, fair, and complete, and must not present unsubstantiated claims as established fact when credible evidence suggests otherwise. We therefore urge the Toronto Star to revise its headline so that it does not present the claim of faulty intelligence as an established fact. Continue reading

The article glorifies the “joint Israeli-US opening salvo” against the Islamic Republic, while failing to mention the mounting death toll from the U.S./Israeli bombing. In particular, there is no reference to the airstrike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab that killed approximately 165 people, most of them girls, despite it occurring during the opening and illegal assault. By omitting this verified atrocity, the article fails to provide accurate, balanced information to readers.  Continue reading

The article is correct in reporting that Iran is carrying out retaliatory strikes against U.S. bases and strategic assets across the Gulf region and against Israel. It is also correct in noting that Iranian strikes have hit civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries such as Qatar and Bahrain. However, the article fails to provide important context regarding the nature of Iran’s attacks on civilian infrastructure. Continue reading

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East believes Prime Minister Mark Carney should categorically rule out Canadian participation in this war. The U.S.–Israel conflict with Iran is deeply unpopular among Canadians, and even Carney stated it violates international law. Continue reading

Journalistic fairness means that if you are going to point out that Iran’s retaliatory strikes have targeted countries in the Middle East that host U.S. military bases, you should also be pointing out how many countries the U.S. and Israel have bombed and how many world leaders they have murdered or forcibly removed from office in just the last two years. If you want to be fully fair and balanced, your reporting should at least occasionally be looking back over several decades at the master plan that seem to be coming to a head. This also means mentioning the Greater Israel project.   Continue reading

"The article does not align with journalistic standards of balance of perspectives and views. Throughout the article, the overwhelming majority of quoted voices are Iranian-Canadians celebrating the attacks, explicitly pro–U.S. and pro–Israel voices, supporters of regime change, and admirers of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. There are no voices from Iranian-Canadians who oppose foreign military intervention, anti-war Iranian diaspora members, international law experts questioning the legality of the strikes, human rights advocates concerned about civilian harm, or scholars contextualizing the consequences of regime change wars." Continue reading

"The headline obscures the most essential fact of this developing story which is that Israel has invaded southern Lebanon, in clear violation of Lebanese sovereignty. A headline that centers Israeli military directives rather than the act of cross-border invasion misleads readers about the nature of the escalation." Continue reading