Conservatives are demanding a House of Commons committee investigation into a leaked Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) memo that instructs reporters not to refer to members of Hamas as “terrorists” and instead to use the word “militants.”
CBC, a publicly funded news outlet, told journalists in a leaked email written by CBC Director of Journalistic Standards George Achi not to say that Gaza has not been occupied by Israel since 2005, and not to refer to “militants, soldiers, or anyone else” as “terrorists.” The instructions came after Hamas launched rocket attacks on Israel, killed civilians on the ground in Israeli cities close to the Gaza border, and took hostages, including children, to Gaza.
She said that the Conservatives would be calling for the matter to be investigated at committee.
The Conservative motion states that Hamas has been declared a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002 and the “horrific Hamas attack against Israel left thousands of innocent people dead and injured.”
The motion states that CBC has directed employees “to downplay the coverage of the horrific sadistic violence perpetrated by Hamas against innocent people in Israel by not referring to the attackers as terrorists, and falsely claimed the Gaza continued to be under occupation after Israel had pulled out in 2005.”
The statement also notes that the CBC receives $1.4 billion annually in public funding, and the House of Commons has a mandate to review government expenditures. The Conservatives are asking the House committee to denounce the comments made by Mr. Achi and summon him for testimony, summon CBC president Catherine Tait to appear for two hours of testimony, and invite CBC ombudsman Jack Nagler to appear before the committee for a minimum of two hours to address CBC’s position.
Mr. Fenlon said “unfortunately” an internal memo sent to staff on covering the attacks was made public, “leading to great confusion about how we work, and many complaints.” He said CBC has been asked if they would “ban” the use of the word “terrorist.”
“The answer is clear: we most certainly do not ban it,” he said. Instead, use of the word must be “attributed to governments, officials, authorities, experts and politicians” and the news outlet said it has been a “policy for decades.”
“CBC News does not itself designate specific groups as terrorists, or specific acts as terrorism, regardless of the region or the events, because these words are so loaded with meaning, politics and emotion that they can end up being impediments to our journalism,” said Mr. Fenlon.
He said CBC;s policy is “mirrored” by other news organizations such as BBC, Reuters, and The Associated Press.
The public broadcaster said it is “independent of any and all governments” and that readers “may find a few examples of our policy being applied unevenly in some of our content over the years,” which the outlet said was the result of errors slipping through.
“We are aware of two recent motions to parliamentary committees indicating that some Members of Parliament believe they have a role in determining how journalists do their work,” Leon Mar, director of CBC media relations, told The Epoch Times in an email on Oct. 16.
“It is important to remember that the independence of CBC/Radio-Canada’s journalism from the government and Parliament is protected in law, in the Broadcasting Act,” said Mr. Mar.
