More than three months into the current war between Israel and Hamas, rallies and demonstrations supporting either Israel or Hamas have taken place around the world, including in Canada.

Often, these protests are covered by local news media outlets, which showcase them to the public. But journalism is more than simply reporting on an event; it is providing background, context and relevant facts.

In a January 16 article in The Tribune, “Montrealers pay tribute to the over 100 journalists killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza,” a student newspaper at McGill University, author Chloé Kichenane failed to achieve this.

Kichenane’s article covering a small anti-Israel protest in Montreal told readers that on January 11, a group gathered “to pay tribute to journalists who died in Gaza in a vigil organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).”

While The Tribune can report on any event it so chooses, it also owes a duty of responsibility to share pertinent details. In this case, PYM is a group with a history of spreading hateful anti-Israel propaganda.

PYM leaders have told assembled crowds that Zionism is a “slow-moving genocide,” and exhorted followers to “fight Zionism here” in North America. They have also excused Hamas massacres and denied Israel’s right to exist in the ancestral homeland of the Jewish People.

In the article, Kichenane wrote that “According to Al Jazeera on Dec. 23, authorities in Gaza have stated that at least 100 journalists have been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7.”

The hyperlink provided in the article leads to an article in Al Jazeera, which quotes Hamas as making the claim of 100 journalists being killed in Gaza. But this misleading phrasing on Kichenane’s part falsely suggests that the news agency made this claim, when it was simply reporting Hamas’ statement.

Just because Hamas claims 100 journalists have been killed certainly does not make the accusation credible. Hamas is a genocidal Islamic terrorist group which has falsely claimed that it never intended to murder Israeli civilians on October 7, and can hardly be relied upon to make accurate statements.

Moreover, there are serious doubts surrounding contentions about journalists’ deaths in Gaza. As reported by investigative journalist David Collier, dozens of journalists listed by groups like Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) appear to have significant ties to Islamic terrorism, while there is no evidence that scores of others listed are journalists at all.

Kichenane told readers that during the protest, “A representative from PYM then encouraged the crowd to repeat the names of journalists who were killed in Gaza, such as Hamza Dahdouh, son of Al Jazeera’s journalist Wael Dahdouh.”

What Kichenane did not report is that according to Israel, Hamza Dahdouh was killed in an air strike while he was traveling alongside a terror drone operative, and that Dahdouh was a member of the electronic engineering unit of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and was previously a deputy commander in the terrorist group’s Zeitun Battalion.

These charges are absolutely central to the story of Hamza Dahdouh, and by utterly ignoring them, The Tribune effectively pretends they do not exist at all, misleading readers and failing to uphold basic principles of journalistic integrity.

If The Tribune sees a small gathering as newsworthy for its readers, then the newspaper has a right to report on the event. Anybody can simply record the proceedings and statements of participants at a demonstration, as Kichenane has done. Had she provided critical context about the claims made by the anti-Israel protesters, or the protest organizers themselves, readers would have been given a far more accurate picture of what took place.