Author Dr. Jon Thompson, journalists Bruce Wark and Miles Howe, Jane MacMillan of Canadians, Arabs and Jews for a Just Peace, which is sponsoring the event. Dr. Thompson is Professor emeritus of mathematics and statistics, University of New Brunswick and the author of the recent book, âNo Debate: The Israel Lobby and Free Speech at Canadian Universitiesâ. He was Chair of the independent investigation of the unfair treatment of medical researcher Dr. Nancy Olivieri at Sick Children's Hospital, Toronto and wrote the Olivieri report. Bruce Wark is a freelance journalist and retired journalism professor who now lives in Parrsboro. He taught the history and ethics of journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax for 15 years. Before that, he worked for 19 years at CBC Radio news serving as a producer in charge of such network programs as World at Six, World Report and The House. He also produced Media File, a national program that looked critically at the performance of the news media. Miles Howe is a Halifax-based freelance journalist who covered the Canadian Boat to Gaza and whose CBC Radio interview and feature article in The Coast generated considerable reaction. Jane MacMillan is a member of the Halifax organization Canadians, Arabs and Jews for a Just Peace that conducts local educational events and speaking events on the Middle East. Organizer:Jim Guild
Event Sponsored by Canadians, Arabs and Jews for a Just Peace
Audio recorded for the Halifax Media Co-op by Scott Barber
Nova Scotia daily newspaper coverage of the Middle East favours Israel and almost never quotes Palestinians, a study has found.
Jim Guild of Canadians, Arabs and Jews for a Just Peace (CAJJP) searched and analyzed more than 500 stories published between Dec. 1,2011 and May 15, 2012 that contained the word Israel or Palestinian.
Israel appeared in 467 stories and Palestinian in only 68, said Mr. Guild, a volunteer researcher with the Halifax-based group.
âFewer than 10 of the 500 plus stories quoted a Palestinian, and usually at the end of the story,â he said. âIsraeli government officials were quoted or cited in all stories reviewed.â
No mention was made in any published story of the recently-ended hunger strike by more than 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails; and Israelâs 45-year-old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was mentioned in only a few stories.
And only one story stated that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were illegal â- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said so in a Feb. 2 story published in the Cape Breton Post.
Nearly all the news stories are produced by Associated Press and are presumably available to all the provinceâs daily newspapers, Mr. Guild said. The Chronicle-Herald published the most stories, but was "particularly inclined to not publish stories that cast Israel in a unflattering light".
Many such stories were published, however, in daily newspapers in Amherst, Truro, New Glasgow and Sydney.
To better understand why there is such an imbalance, CAJJP has organized a panel discussion entitled âSilencing Israelâs Criticsâ on Thursday (May 24) at 7 p.m. at Sobeys Room 255 at St. Maryâs University.
Panel members are author Jon Thompson, journalists Bruce Wark and Miles Howe, Jane MacMillan of Canadians, Arabs and Jews for a Just Peace.
Contact: Jim Guild
SilencingIsraelsCritics_fullLength
full panel and most of Q and A
05:03:12
1
May 24, 2012
Sobeys Building, St. Mary's University, Halifax, NS, Canada
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