In March of this year, we announced the launch of our “Media Accountability Project,” a new initiative to challenge Canadian media bias against Palestinians and their narratives. We are ecstatic to say that after just six months, our impact has already far exceeded our expectations. 

In recent weeks, this has included:

• Just yesterday, publishing a letter in the influential Hill Times rebutting a letter from a pro-Israel writer which was riddled with falsehoods.
• Last week, getting seven Canadian media outlets to change a misleading headline and article
• Prompting media wire services to start including the terminology of apartheid in their reporting on Israel
• Two weeks ago, having CJPME staff interviewed on CTV National News

Not only have we had dozens of successes like the above, but we’ve also deepened the sophistication of our media advocacy:

• Earlier this month, we sent a challenge to the CBC ombudsman for the CBC’s misuse of the term “terror” or “terrorist” in relation to Palestinian victims of Israel’s recent attack on the Jenin refugee camp.
• In recent weeks, we've published several important “essays” to address common media mistakes, like, “Why Gaza is still occupied even though Israel ‘disengaged’ in 2005.”
• In the last four months, we published over 25 “Media Alerts” to our hundreds of “Media Responders,” who sent emails to media outlets in response.

Read below for more details on these accomplishments.

If you believe in this type of work, please consider donating to our work.  If you’d like to participate more closely in this work, we offer a Media Responder role, where people can sign up to receive alerts to send an email to media outlets which have recently published poor articles or broadcasts.

CJPME’s Success in Impacting the Media

Since we launched the Media Accountability Project, we’ve had dozens of successes, including 1) corrections to media coverage, 2) shifting of the media narrative, 3) letters to-the-editor published, 4) context added to media coverage, and more. All our impacts can be viewed here, but below we provide some recent and important examples:

Associated Press updates article after CJPME complaint.  Associated Press (AP) story about an Israeli killed by a Palestinian military failed to mention that the Israeli was a soldier on duty.  AP updated the article, as did seven different Canadian outlets which carried the story.

Associated Press starts citing reports on Israeli Apartheid.  After After months of pressure from CJPME to start mentioning reports documenting Israeli apartheid, CJPME has finally started to see AP mention such reports.

Following complaint from CJPME, the Canadian Press (CP) acknowledged that it had used inappropriate language in a news report about Israel’s attack on the Jenin refugee camp.  Although CP did not change the article, it pledged to be more vigilant.

Bell Media apologized for a false claim about celebrated musician Roger Waters, after CJPME challenged a broadcast falsely accusing Waters of certain antisemitic activities.

After CJPME complained about an uncritical broadcast about the IHRA definition of antisemitism on CBC, the CBC Midday Café’s offered to interview CJPME on the IHRA definition. Michael Bueckert took the interview, and raised the many concerns about the IHRA definition. 

The Associated Press added Palestinian sources and perspectives following complaints from CJPME and its Media Responders about the killing of a Palestinian toddler in the West Bank.

The Associated Press and the Canadian Press both updated their articles on Israel’s “Independence Day” to mention the Palestinian Nakba.

CJPME’s media advocacy prompted corrections and updates to stories on the status of East Jerusalem and Gaza by CP24, CityNews, and CBC:

• CP24 made an on-air correction for false claim that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is “in Israel.”
• CityNews made an on-air correction for false claim that Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre Church is “in Israel.”
• CBC updated an article to note that Al-Aqsa Mosque is in “occupied East Jerusalem.”
• CBC walked back a false assertion that “Gaza is not occupied.”

Review more of our impacts here.

CJPME’s Essays to address Common Media Mistakes

To date, CJPME has published four in-depth essays to address common media mistakes. They include:

Why the West Bank is “Occupied” and NOT “Captured,” addressing the media’s mistaken tendency to say that Israel “captured” the West Bank and other Palestinian territories in 1967.

Why Gaza is considered “occupied” even though Israel “disengaged” in 2005, where we address the common media mistake of saying that Hamas “controls” Gaza and Israel no longer “occupies” Gaza.

What Palestinian resistance groups REALLY think, where we challenge the media’s tendency to use reductive and one-sided language to describe Palestinian resistance groups like the PFLP, Hamas and others.

Why the West Bank is “occupied” and NOT “disputed,” where we address the media’s misleading tendency to adopt Israeli terminology suggesting that the West Bank is simply “disputed,” rather than being belligerently occupied by Israel.

Can you support our work?

CJPME's impact on media coverage is only possible through the generosity of donors. If you believe in what CJPME is doing to pressure media for fair and unbiased coverage, please consider making a gift of financial support to CJPME.  Our work depends entirely on private donations. Monthly donations are especially helpful, as they sustain our ongoing work and make it easier for us to strategize for the future. If you don't like to donate by credit card, you may donate via email transfer, over the phone (438-380-5410), or complete and mail in this form. Thank you!