In the November 18 broadcast of Global News BC, Global’s anchor erroneously claimed on-air that “Palestine” is a “sovereign state”:
The Trump administration is threatening to close the Palestinian office in Washington unless the sovereign state enters some serious peace talks with Israel. An obscure U.S. law says the office must close if Palestine calls for Israelis to be prosecuted for crimes against their people. Something Palestine’s president called for in his speech to the UN in September. Trump now has 90 days to determine if Palestine is in direct negotiations with Israel. The Palestinian foreign minister called the move “an act of extortion.” (I saw the report live at approximately 12:15pm PST).
Watch the report immediately below:
Contrary to what Global reported, the Palestinians don’t have secure, recognized and defined borders and have not procured statehood, nor sovereignty. They are to be regarded as the Palestinian territories and perhaps they can get statehood in an eventual peace agreement with Israel.
As it stands, Global’s reporting was false and an on-air correction was called for inline with the practices dictated by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC).
After HRC filed an official complaint, Global apologized and issued an on-air correction on December 16 noting that Palestine “is not recognized as a sovereign state by Canada, the United States, Australia, and Europe.”
You can watch the on-air apology by clicking here or below. It stated the following:
On November 18 while reporting the details of the Trump administration’s threat to close the Palestinian office in Washington, Global BC inadvertently referred to Palestine as a sovereign state, Palestine is not recognized as a sovereign state by Canada, the United States, Australia, and Europe. We apologize for this error.”
Global News BC’s official response sent to HRC by Jill Krop, Global BC’s News Director, stated the following:
Please accept our apologies for any confusion we may have caused on the day in question while reporting on the details regarding a Trump administration threat to close the Palestinian office in Washington. Be assured that the reference to Palestine as a sovereign state was an inadvertent oversight and not meant to intentionally mislead our viewers in any way. As required by the Accuracy clause within the RTDNA Code of Ethics, “errors and inaccuracy that affect the understanding of a news story will be unambiguously and promptly corrected”. After having received your correspondence, and conducting our internal investigation, an apology and correction for this story was broadcast on Saturday Dec 16, 2017, during Global News at Noon on Global BC.”
HonestReporting Canada commends Global News BC for promptly and professionally acting to set the record straight on this matter.
