January 15, 2025 – for immediate release

The National NewsMedia Council (NNC) has dismissed one portion of a complaint and found corrective action to have been taken in another portion of a complaint about the accuracy of an October 14, 2024, article published by the National Post. 

The complainant, Jerry Kafieh, raised two concerns about accuracy in the article. In the first part of the submission, the complainant argued the news organization inaccurately reported that a pro-Palestinian advocacy group “handed out pamphlets detailing the risks and benefits of ‘complex coordinated terrorist attacks’ in pursuing political aims.” 

In the second part of the complaint submission, the complainant pointed out that the article incorrectly reported  the number of civilian deaths on the day of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. 

The news organization provided a response to each of the complainant’s concerns. With regards to the portion of the complaint about the pamphlets, the news organization stated it confirmed, again, the authenticity of the pamphlets with their source in the wake of the complaint. The news organization explained, moreover, how their source had come into possession of the pamphlets at the rally, which was described in the news story. 

With regards to the complainant’s concerns about the accuracy of the statement that 1,100 civilians were killed during the October 7 attacks, the news organization agreed with the complainant that an error had been made. The story now carries an editor’s note which reads: “This story has been updated to clarify that some of the more than 1,100 people killed in the October 7 terrorist attack were not civilians.”

News organizations may cover protests from different angles and for a variety of journalistic reasons, which may range from informing audiences about the issues or policy matters that inspired the protests or counter-protests to providing practical information about the impact of the event on the local community. When reporting on protests, journalists take care to consider which images and details to present and the extent to which reported actions and statements reflect the general group of protestors or a small subset of individuals in attendance. At the same time, journalists have the prerogative to select the focus and scope of a story and to rely on the relevant sources to inform the piece.

In this case, the NNC supports the news organization’s steps to acknowledge and correct the error. For that reason, the NNC found corrective action to have been taken to address the part of the complaint about the number of civilian deaths. In examining the two aspects of the complaint and the news organization’s response to each, the NNC did not find sufficient grounds to support a breach of journalistic standards related to accuracy or attribution.