The National NewsMedia Council, a voluntary regulatory body of Canadian media, has reached a decision in a complaint lodged against an opinion column written by Mike Fegelman, executive director of HonestReporting Canada, and published on nationalpost.com (“The Evidence Is Clear — There Is No Famine in Gaza,” June 21).
Complainant Martyn Williams alleged the column provided a “one-sided perspective which avoids widely available evidence and issues relating to the threat of famine” in Gaza, that the Post failed to provide “objective perspectives” and that the accompanying photo of a well-stocked Gazan food vendor was misleading.
The council ruled that the photo was appropriate and that opinion writers are well within their rights to “present provocative, strongly stated and unpopular opinions.” Moreover, publishers are not required to present “objective perspectives” in an opinion section.
The council did, however, find that the column overlooked the limitations in a report it cited from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Specifically, the council observed that while the report “stresses the need for quantifiable and up-to-date evidence to assess current and past thresholds of famine, the opinion piece relies on the lack of formal confirmation, based on a lack of ‘essential, up to date data,’ to deny the risk of famine.”
The column also cited a study showing an increase in food supplies entering the Gaza Strip, but the council noted that this does not necessarily mean the aid reached its intended targets. “In reviewing the materials cited, council observed that the opinion column appears to equate increased food supplies and a lack of data to endorse a technical classification of ‘famine’ with the notion that data show that ‘there was never a famine, nor anything close to it.’ ”
Thus, while the council “dismissed the concerns around the use of the image and lack of counter arguments,” it upheld “one part of the complaint for breaching the journalistic standard of accuracy in its use of the source material.”