Radio Canada ombudsman admits anti-Israel bias

From the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (Canada):

Radio-Canada’s news department should “change its attitude towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” says the Ombudsman of the CBC’s French-language service in his annual report released today, adding that there were“ this year again, very real problems with the coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict with regards to the Palestinian question.”

In the past 6 years, CIJA filed dozens of complaints about egregious instances of factual errors and bias that regularly undermine the public broadcaster’s coverage of Israel and the Palestinians, the overwhelming majority of which were upheld by the Ombudsman. CIJA also met with senior managers at Radio-Canada to raise concerns about its last correspondent in Israel who was blamed on some 10 different occasions by the Ombudsman for erroneous and biased reporting.

Honest Reporting Canada, which was named along with three other pro-Israel groups in the ombudsman's report, translated some relevant passages from the French:

There were thus, again this year, very real problems with the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

That said, we cannot pretend that the work of journalists at Radio Canada , whether radio , television or the web , was not scrutinized by a very well organized lobby which was as determined as it was effective. This attention has had the merit of at least identifying the elements of the coverage which the management of news and information needs to improve. I am realistic: In a file as difficult and thorny as this, other errors, unfortunately, will be made.

I am aware of the efforts that have been made since my report last year to improve the situation. But there need to be more, perhaps changing their attitude towards the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

After all, this conflict has existed since the creation of Israel in 1948, even before, and nothing and no one really seems to want or be able to break the stalemate . I have in the past invited the leadership to think in this direction. I repeat this invitation , knowing that this is an ongoing process that belongs solely to it.”

One interesting staistic in the report: On all other topics, the percentage of corrections after complaints hovers around 2%. For the Israel-Arab conflict, it is an astounding 16%. Considering how reticent the media is to ever issue a correction, this is quite high. It indicates not only that the bias is endemic but also that the Israel-supporters in Canada are documenting their complaints very well.

A small victory but an important one.

(h/t Manny)