Success: Journal de Montreal Issues Retraction

See Also: HRC Secures CBC On-Air Correction

April 29, 2008

HonestReporting Canada alerted you to the Journal de Montreal?s April 7^th AFP report entitled "TU? PAR LES ISRA?LIENS" or in English ?KILLED BY THE ISRAELIS,? an article which falsely blamed Israel for the death of a Palestinian boy when in fact the boy was killed by errant Palestinian mortar fire.

To recall, after communicating our concerns to AFP editors in Paris, they quickly investigated the matter and promptly issued this retraction. In sharp contrast, editors at the Journal ignored our requests to follow suit.

Following a flood of complaints from HRC subscribers, the Journal published this AFP retraction in today?s newspaper. (Note: HRC Translation appears to the left)

We credit the Journal for issuing this AFP retraction and the many HonestReporting Canada subscribers who made their feelings known to the newspaper. Once again you have proved that your voices can be effective in fighting media bias even in those media outlets that are seemingly immune to criticism.

HRC Secures Rare CBC On-Air Correction

On April 24, CBC Around the World featured a short report detailing how Palestinian and Israeli protesters were scuffling with Israeli soldiers at an abandoned army post in the West Bank. However, as the report unfolded, host Andrew Nichols erroneously reported the following:

?The incident came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered an evacuation of many West Bank settlements, the announcement is part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.? Watch the clip by clicking on the image below.

Contrary to this statement, Olmert never ordered any such evacuation of many West Bank settlements. Such a statement, would have generated tremendous media coverage worldwide. The only thing that remotely comes close to this story was whether Olmert?s government would support a new bill to compensate West Bank settlers who would voluntarily leave their homes if such an evacuation was ordered.

HonestReporting Canada brought these concerns to the CBC?s attention, which to its credit, very promptly and professionally set the record straight by issuing this rare on-air correction the following day. You can view the correction by clicking on the image below.

According to host Harry Forestall on Friday?s edition of Around the World:

?A correction on one of our stories from yesterday. We reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had ordered an evacuation of some West Bank settlements. Well he didn?t? actually do that, we regret the error.?

While we applaud the CBC for setting the record straight, notwithstanding how did such an error evade the grasp of trained CBC editors? The unfortunate reality is that many CBC viewers did not see this correction and continue to be misled in believing that Israel had ordered an evacuation of many West Bank settlements. Such is the importance of the media getting it right in the first place.

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