The Media Accountability Project  

Major media outlets, from the Globe and Mail and CNN to BBC and The New York Times reported on the findings of a 300-page report published by the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, an Israeli non-profit founded in 2023. The report, titled “Silenced No More Sexual Terror Unveiled: The Untold Atrocities of October 7 and Against Hostages in Captivity,” claims to document evidence gathered through more than 430 interviews conducted over the past two years with alleged survivors, witnesses, returned hostages, and family members. It alleges that Hamas militants perpetrated systematic, widespread, and calculated sexual and gender-based violence during the October 7, 2023 attacks.

Opinion writing does not exempt columnists from basic standards of factual accuracy. When a columnist makes claims about sexual violence while misrepresenting the very source being cited, this moves beyond the realm of opinion writing and into the dissemination of falsehoods presented as fact.