CBC corrects reporter over use of word “attack” in Israel story

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/23/na0424-th-bias/

For using the word “attack” in relation to Israel’s 2010 raid on a Gaza blockade-runner, a Middle East reporter for Radio-Canada, the French-language version of CBC, was rebuked by the network on Monday.

In reporting on a deadly skirmish that broke out between Israeli soldiers and a pipe-wielding activist aboard the deck of the M/V Mavi Marmara, correspondent Ginette Lamarche “misused the word ‘attack’ to refer to the legal seizure of the vessel by Israeli forces,” read a brief correction by Radio-Canada.

Ms. Lamarche was referencing the episode in an April 7 report broadcast soon after Israel issued a U.S.-brokered apology to Turkey for the incident, which killed eight Turkish activists.

The CBC correction is only the latest to be issued against Ms. Lamarche, a veteran Middle East reporter whose work has become a frequent target of scrutiny by Canadian Jewish groups.

Earlier this year, for instance, David Ouellette, a representative with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, complained to Radio-Canada that a report by Ms. Lamarche on a speech by Hamas leader Khaled Meshal had failed to accurately define the word “Palestine.”

According to Mr. Ouellette, the broadcast had intimated that Meshal was referring to the territories of Gaza and the West Bank when, in fact, he was referring to all the land currently occupied by Israel. Radio-Canada ombudsman Pierre Tourangeau agreed and wrote in a response that the report suffered from a “lack of clarity.”

In late 2011, Mr. Ouellette similarly complained that Ms. Lamarche has failed to portray the violence of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the moments before they were shot by Israeli forces in a skirmish near the Syrian border. Mr. Tourangeau responded that the report may have suffered from a lack of “exactitude.”

Most notably, in February 2012, following a 14-page response to complaints that arose from a series of Ms. Lamarche’s December newscasts, Mr. Tourangeau concluded that, on occasion, her reporting had carried “at least an appearance of bias.”

One report, for instance, stated that Palestinians could spend a “good part of their youth in jail” for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Honest Reporting Canada, a pro-Israel media monitoring group, in turn, sent Radio Canada statistics showing that the maximum sentence youth can face for throwing stones is 15 months.

Nevertheless, Mr. Tourangeau recognized in his Feb. 14, 2012, report that he had no doubt of the good faith of Ms. Lamarche and was certain the breaches were “involuntary and accidental.”

“I recognize the difficulties that are often faced reporters on the ground, particularly in conflict zones: Lengthy assignments, unavailable spokespeople, unverifiable facts, language barriers that put us at the mercy of interpreters and guides,” he said in the report.

Mr. Tourangeau acknowledged he was on the three-person selection committee who selected Ms. Lamarche for the position of Middle East correspondent in 2010.