Radio-Canada:
Immigrants to Israel are “Settlers”
July 15, 2005
Dear HonestReporting Canada subscriber:
Many Canadian news organizations reported on this week’s immigration of Canadian Jews to begin new lives in Israel. Radio-Canada, the French side of Canada’s national broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada, covered the story in its TV news program, Le Telejournal, on July 12. But unlike other Canadian media, Radio-Canada called the new immigrants “nouveaux colons.” In English, that means “new settlers.”
To view the Radio-Canada report, click here.
By calling immigrants to Israel “settlers,” Radio-Canada implied that Israel, recognized by Canada as a sovereign state, is a “settlement,” with a tenuous claim to any of its land — whether Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa or Eilat. This choice of language misled Canadian viewers.
HonestReporting Canada encourages readers to request an on-air correction from Radio-Canada. Email a brief letter, in French or English, to Radio-Canada ombudsman Renaud Gilbert at ombudsman@radio-canada.ca.
Please email a copy of your correspondence to action@honestreporting.ca, and please do NOT send letters that are angry, accusatory or abusive.
“Terror” Part II
Yesterday HonestReporting Canada encouraged readers to commend the CBC for using the word “terror” to describe the murders of non-combatants in Britain and Israel. In particular, two instances were highlighted: a July 12 CBC Newsworld report about the Netanya bombing (click here to see video) and a July 7 CBC Web site article on the London bombings, entitled “More than 50 dead in London attacks.”
Less than two hours after HonestReporting Canada issued the alert, the CBC removed the word “terror” from its report.
But CBC’s attempt to eradicate the word “terror” was only partly successful. Lower on the same page, the “T-word” appears yet again.
HonestReporting Canada will monitor how long it takes CBC to expunge the word this time.
“Retaliation” Part II
Two days ago the Globe and Mail paraphrased the Israeli army as calling its military operations in Tulkarm “retaliation” for a suicide bombing in Netanya. But the Israeli army made no such claim, and HonestReporting Canada secured a Globe and Mail clarification.
Using the same Reuters newswire report, the National Post also printed the “retaliation” paraphrase. Today HonestReporting Canada secured a clarification in the National Post (at right). HonestReporting Canada commends the National Post for issuing a clear and unequivocal clarification.
