News Release

For Immediate Release 

Palestine, Israel and the case of missing news: what Canadians aren't reading in their daily papers
A Quantitative, Comparative Media Analysis by the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations 

Ottawa, ON - The National Council on Canada-Arab Relations (NCCAR) today released the results of a recently conducted quantitative, comparative analysis of news coverage of Israeli and Palestinian issues by key Canadian English-language newspapers: The Globe and Mail and National Post (national newspapers) as well as Canada's largest circulation paper, the Toronto Star (a city newspaper).

NCCAR asked the following questions:

•  Are key Canadian papers omitting news about Israeli and Palestinian issues that are essential to a factual understanding of critical ongoing events in the region?

•  If so,

a.  to what extent do these news omissions occur?
b.  do these news omissions relate to particular categories of news?
c.  are there differences among key Canadian papers with respect to these news omissions?

The analysis of 279 unique reports published by the 3 newspapers, Reuters, Associated Press and the International Herald Tribune between Oct. 12 and Dec. 23, 2008, the period immediately prior to the assault on Gaza, shows that:

•  key Canadian papers cover only a small fraction of the news stories that occurred (279 reports)

a.  National Post 4%
b.  Globe and Mail 14%
c.  Toronto Star 16%

•  Moreover, there was significant variation in the rate of coverage across topics by Canadian newspapers, particularly the national papers.

The table below summarizes the findings:

Table 1: Coverage by Topic

•  Canada 's national papers, The Globe and Mail and National Post:

•  largely ignore (only 3-4% news coverage) in the case of the Globe and Mail or, in the case of the National Post, completely omit (0% news coverage) news reports relating to certain topics such as human rights and humanitarian issues (51 reports), as well as settlements and movement restrictions (30 reports), which are key aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli impasse.

•  cover news stories on armed violence by Israel to a lower extent than armed violence by Palestinian militants

 i. Globe and Mail: 15% of 20 reports vs. 27% of 11 reports
 ii. National Post: 0% of 20 reports vs. 9% of 11 reports

Table 2: Comparison of Coverage of Armed Violence by Israel vs. Palestinian militants

Only reports where one side is conducting armed violence (as opposed to both fighting each other at the same time) were included

•  cover news stories on internal Israeli politics / issues to a significantly higher extent than the Palestinian equivalent

i. Globe and Mail: 34% of 29 reports vs. 7% of 27 reports
ii. National Post: 14% of 29 reports vs. 0% of 27 reports

•  Interestingly, the Toronto Star, usually considered a city paper, provided more comprehensive and balanced coverage across news topics compared to Canada 's national papers.

•  However, given their low coverage overall, particularly on the key topics of “human rights / humanitarian” and “settlements and movement restrictions” all 3 newspapers omitted news reports that would have added to Canadians' understanding of Israeli and Palestinian issues. Some examples of reports omitted within these 2 topics by all 3 papers are:

•  Human Rights / Humanitarian

i. Gaza hospitals suffering from lack of medicine | World | Reuters
ii. Activists sail into Gaza, defy Israel blockade - International Herald Tribune
iii. UN: Gaza unemployment rises to 49 percent
iv. UN envoy to Israel: Halt house demolitions - International Herald Tribune
v. Israel probes fraction of Palestinian deaths-report
vi. Israel denies entry to UN rights investigator
vii. Israel approves release of 250 Palestinian prisoners

•  Settlement and Movement/Access Restrictions

i. New Israeli crossings hurt Palestinian trade: World Bank
ii. Israel again shuts journalists out of Gaza
iii. Israeli high court questions state's outpost plan - International Herald Tribune
iv. Israel cuts aid to outposts amid rising settler violence

NCCAR is concerned about the lack of comprehensive and balanced current news coverage provided by Canada 's national papers and the negative impact this may have on Canadian readers' ability to make well-informed judgments on the Israeli-Palestinian issue and how Canada should respond to this important and ongoing issue that affects the Middle East and the world.

Given the principle stated by the Canadian Newspaper Association that “the newspaper keeps faith with readers by presenting information that is accurate, fair, comprehensive, interesting and timely,” NCCAR calls on the international news editors of Canada's newspapers, particularly The Globe and Mail and the National Post, to take the necessary steps to ensure comprehensive and balanced news coverage across all topics relating to Israeli and Palestinian issues.

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For further information: Rula Odeh 613 238 3795 or admin@nccar.ca