Radio-Canada corrects Mavi Marmara ‘attack’ report

MONTREAL — Radio-Canada issued a correction to a report by its Middle East correspondent for her use of the word “attack” in referring to the Mavi Marmara incident two years ago.

The French-language public broadcaster stated that Ginette Lamarche erred in her choice of words in her April 7 radio report on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s Middle East visit and the effort to find reconciliation between Israel and Turkey.

“…[T]he correspondent recalled the Mavi Marmara incident and misused the word ‘attack’ to refer to the legal boarding of the vessel by Israeli forces in which nine Turkish citizens were killed.”

The correction was issued April 23 following a complaint by HonestReporting.ca (HRC), a pro-Israel media monitoring group.

Lamarche had said on air: “Two weeks after the Israeli prime minister offered an apology to Ankara for the attack on the Mavi Marmara…”

HRC requested an amendment, maintaining that Israeli forces “boarded the vessel while enforcing a legal naval blockade of Gaza” and that the Israelis opened fire only after the Turkish activists tried to “lynch” the Israeli soldiers.

It cited the United Nations Palmer report, which concluded that the naval blockade was “imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law…

“Israeli Defence Forces personnel faced significant, organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers when they board the Mavi Marmara requiring them to use force for their own protection…”

The Radio-Canada ombudsman has upheld 10 complaints against Lamarche, from HRC and the Council for Jewish and Israel Affairs, since the fall of 2011.