Why I Left CTV News: the Fight for Press Freedom in Canada

 

When HonestReporting Canada targeted me with a harassment campaign, Management at CTV Montreal broke their own rules to accommodate the lobby group.

In the fall of 2021, I found myself the target of an orchestrated harassment campaign. 

It was the first time I had ever heard of HonestReporting Canada (HRC) – a pro-Israel media watchdog. The campaign, which called on its members to “condemn” me, came in response to a TV report I produced for CTV News Montreal on the Wet’suwet’en protests. The weird part is that my coverage had nothing to do with the Middle East. 

Montrealers gathered in support of the hereditary chiefs who were in a stand-off with the RCMP and the Coastal GasLink company in British Columbia. It was a strong and straightforward story. The night it aired, colleagues congratulated me, as one anchor and senior producer wrote: “Your story was excellent. Well worth the energy you obviously put into it. Your expertise shone through.” 

However, the next morning I woke up to an onslaught of emails and DMs from HRC members who took issue with a visual detail: one of the people I interviewed was wearing a keffiyeh and holding a Palestinian flag. HRC labeled this man an “anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protester,” and what followed was weeks of relentless harassment flooding my inboxes, demanding that I be fired, claiming that “people like me should not exist.” 

Some said they knew where I lived.  (more...)

Why I Left CTV News: the Fight for Press Freedom in Canada

Journalists Urged To Report Threats Received After Pro-Israel Campaigns

 

“I don’t call it ‘HonestReporting.’ I call it dishonest reporting.”

Canadian journalists who have received online threats after being targeted by a pro-Israel group are being encouraged to report any such threats to a press freedom monitoring project.

The Canada Press Freedom Project (CPFP), which is run by the publication J-Source, regularly gathers and publishes data about incidents of online threats and other press freedom violations experienced by media workers. 

Last week, J-Source published a call on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) explicitly encouraging journalists who have received online threats after being targeted by HonestReporting Canada (HRC), a pro-Israel group that brands itself as a “grass-roots” media watchdog, to get in touch via CPFP’s online form.

An article published by La Converse this week shared several accounts from journalists who have been targeted by HRC, often via mass email campaigns that contain what one reporter described as “unfounded” requests for edits to stories.

One reporter, Imam Kassam, told La Converse that after she was targeted by HRC in 2021, she received several weeks of what she considers to be “online harassment” — but was offered no support from her employer.  (more...)

Journalists Urged To Report Threats Received After Pro-Israel Campaigns

How we're fighting back after police raid on journalist, with Asa Winstanley

 

We receive an update from The Electronic Intifada's associate editor Asa Winstanley, whose home was raided by British police last Thursday, and whose devices were seized on the pretext of an investigation into his social media postings. We discuss about how we're fighting back against this intolerable attack on media freedom.

Israel Has Infiltrated American Media And Big Tech

 

In this clip from TCR Live #143, Derrick Broze breaks down the latest article from Alan MacLeod about the Israeli infiltration of American media. Derrick also talks about the Israeli intelligence networks infiltration of Big Tech firms.

CPJ Head Condemns Israel's Deadly War on Journalists in Gaza as IDF Threatens Al Jazeera Reporters

 

Al Jazeera is demanding the safety of its staff in the Gaza Strip after Israel claimed that six of the network's journalists there have ties to militant groups. Press freedom advocates say the Israeli accusation amounts to a preemptive justification for murder. Since the start of Israel's war on Gaza last October, at least 128 journalists have been killed, including many from Al Jazeera. The Committee to Protect Journalists says Israel has a history of smearing Palestinian journalists with unproven claims, including in July, when Israel killed Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and later released documents claiming to prove al-Ghoul had received a Hamas military ranking when he was just 10 years old. "There is a pattern of Israel making these kinds of allegations, providing evidence that is, frankly, not credible or, in some cases, no evidence at all," says Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ's chief executive officer. "As we have fewer and fewer journalists reporting … we have less and less information coming out of Gaza. And it's absolutely essential that we have that information, that we have those images, so that the international community can understand the scale of what's happening."

Stand with Palestinian Journalists: Drop Site's Emergency Statement on IDF Threats

 

Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous deliver an urgent appeal to protect Palestinian journalists, in light of the IDF releasing what amounts to a hit list targeting six Al-Jazeera reporters. Drop Site urges all journalists to speak out against the threats to our Palestinian colleagues.

Anti-Zionist Jews face persecution from Jewish institutions

 

Young Jewish Americans are playing an outsized role in the movement for Palestine—but not without facing consequences. In a recent article for In These Times, Shane Burley investigates the ways anti-Zionist Jews are facing persecution from community institutions they once called home. Burley joins The Marc Steiner Show for a discussion on the growing divide over Zionism in Jewish communities, and the role of youth in this process.