In recent days, Motaz Azaiza, a photographer from Gaza who has been honoured by Time Magazine and has been called a “friend” by children’s entertainer and anti-Israel activist Ms. Rachel, made a number of startling and even scandalous admissions while a recent guest on the Arabic-language podcast Taqarrab.

He admitted that, on the morning of October 7, 2023, he did not take photos as Israeli hostages, both alive and dead, were paraded into Gaza and were assaulted by locals because he did not want to help “identify” the terrorists involved and thus “ruin the lives of the people who were filmed.”

No less incredible, Azaiza also called into question the credibility of every single “journalist” operating in Gaza when he stated that “every journalist in Gaza” is on a Hamas-run WhatsApp group that oversees all reporting that comes out of the coastal enclave.

Some two weeks have transpired since Azaiza made those incredible admissions, yet they have been almost universally ignored by the Canadian news media, despite the enormous repercussions they have.

CBC News, in particular, owes Canadians an answer. On at least two occasions since the Palestinian terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster has relied on Azaiza for reporting from Gaza, and now must provide the public with transparency.

First, on December 6, 2023, reporter Keena Alwahaidi (now no longer with the CBC) authored an article, “Internet, phone outages have cut off Gazans from the outside world — and even their loved ones,” where she repeatedly cited Azaiza as a credible war photographer amidst the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.

The following month, Senior Writer Nick Logan featured a full report on Azaiza with his article, “Journalist Motaz Azaiza showed the world what Palestinians endure in war. Now he’s left Gaza.”

In his report, Logan profiles Azaiza, calling him an “independent Palestinian photojournalist” amidst regurgitating other accusations from groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists, which accused Israel of “an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families.”

It is not as if Azaiza was not already a controversial figure, having already appeared to post content to social media on the morning of October 7 that critics have called glorification of Palestinian terrorism. This did not stop CBC News from twice citing and relying on him, and in both cases the broadcaster failed to share this information with readers.

CBC News has been repeatedly exposed by HonestReporting Canada for its reliance on videographer Mohamed El Saife in Gaza, who has posted anti-Israel propaganda to social media, and yet continues to serve a critical role for how millions of Canadians understand the war. El Saife’s role serves as something of a microcosm of CBC’s documented and pervasive anti-Israel bias.

With photographer Moataz Azaiza’s recent admissions about Hamas’ control over journalists in Gaza, and his own acknowledgement that he avoided taking images of terrorists lest they be targeted by Israel’s counter-terrorism operations, CBC News owes all Canadians an answer about how they will properly vet future journalistic sources.