On the evening of April 5, CBC Radio devoted considerable coverage to recent conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and in the introduction of a report by journalist Margaret Evans, the CBC anchor made a serious error by claiming that the Gaza Strip is “occupied” by Israel.

CBC’s anchor erroneously said the following:

“More rockets, more confrontation for the second a narrow. Israeli police have raided the Al-Aqsa mosque. Hundreds have been arrested and the Red Crescent society says multiple people have been injured on both nights. Rockets have been fired into Israel from Hamas-controlled territory in occupied Gaza. As Margaret Evans reports, the growing conflict is drawing concern from countries in the region and around the World.”

Importantly, Israel does not occupy the Gaza Strip. In 2005, Israel disengaged and removed its combined armed forces, 8,000 settlers and uprooted 21 settlements in a unilateral effort to procure peace.

CBC has a longstanding practice to not describe Israel’s (and Egypt’s) blockade of Gaza ­– meant to prevent and thwart terror attacks – as constituting an “occupation”.

Accordingly, it was wrong for CBC Radio to make this statement. HonestReporting Canada engaged senior CBC executives to ensure that CBC broadcast an immediate on-air correction to set the record straight.

We are pleased to note that CBC promptly recognized its error and agreed to amend subsequent newscasts to reflect this information. As per the CBC’s policies, the following on-air correction was aired on April 6:

“And a note, last night we made a reference to the Gaza Strip being ‘occupied’, the territory is not occupied, but rather has its borders controlled by Israel and Egypt.”

We thank the CBC for its cooperation and for taking corrective action.