A July 30 CBC.ca/Canadian Press article entitled “Romney called racist for his view of Israel’s success” misleadingly claimed that: “…Israel has had control over the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem since 1967.” Contrary to this statement, in 2005 Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip removing its 8,500 settlers and combined armed forces. Additionally, as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian agreements following the Oslo Accords of 1993 and subsequent unilateral Israeli withdrawals, the Palestinian Authority now governs the civil affairs of the 98 per cent of Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank. In Area C of the West Bank, a sparsely populated land under Israeli control, just four per cent of Palestinians call this area home. As to Israel’s settlements, they make up less than three per cent of the West Bank’s overall territory.
Importantly, this information was acknowledged in the Associated Press’ source report for this CBC.ca/CP article, but was not included for some unknown reason in the CBC’s version. Here’s how AP reported this statement: “Romney made no mention of the fact that Israel has controlled the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem since capturing them in the 1967 war. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but continues to control access, and has enforced a crippling border blockade since the Islamic militant Hamas seized the territory in 2007. In the West Bank, Israel retains overall control, and Palestinians only have limited self-rule. Israel controls all border crossings in and out of the West Bank.”
HonestReporting Canada filed a complaint with CBC.ca web editors who acknowledged that their reporting was insufficient. CBC also subsequently amended their article by including the above vital context that originated in this AP report. Yet, CBC website editors failed to issue a formal clarification notice to this article, nor did they issue a new time stamp to indicate that the article was altered. Additionally, CBC failed to identify the Associated Press as being a news source of this report. In so doing, the CBC breached policy which dictates that: “Any changes to the original material will be noted to preserve the transparency of the process.”
We have asked the CBC’s Ombudsman to undertake a review to adjudicate this matter.
