OTTAWA – The CBC program Radio Active did not breach the CRTC’s radio regulations, the Commission announced today.
Between May 2003 and November 2005, the Commission received six letters of complaint from one individual, James Darwish, alleging that a radio interview broadcast on 23 October 2002 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), as a segment of the afternoon daily public affairs radio program Radio Active on CBX Edmonton, contained abusive comment and false and misleading information, contrary to the prohibitions contained in section 3 of the Radio Regulations, 1986 (the Regulations)," says Monday’s CRTC release.
The subject of the interview was the sniper attacks that were then occurring in and around the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area and in Virginia.
Darwish complained because he wasn’t satisfied with the letters he had received from the CBC Edmonton regional office and from the CBC’s Ombudsman in response to his initial complaint. The CBC is not a member of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, so the Commission had to rule on the complaint.
Commission staff told Darwish in letters in 2003 and 2004 that the CBC program’s content was within the guidelines but he kept at it. His last letter requesting a formal determination by the CRTC was sent on November 28, 2005.
Darwish considered a question asked by an interviewer to be "misleading, untruthful and undocumented," when the broadcaster asked a rabbi, according to the Commission decision: "There have been comparisons made between the randomness of the sniper attacks and the suicide bombings we hear about in Israel or Palestine. Do you think this has changed people’s understanding of what’s happening in Israel?"
"The Commission agrees with the statements by the program manager and the CBC Ombudsman that the interview broadcast by the CBC did not denigrate one group, namely Palestinians. Rather, the Commission considers, as did the CBC, that the one-time mention of Israel, Palestine and suicide bombings during the interview was made in general reference to a possible parallel that might be drawn between the uncertainty surrounding the lives of citizens living in the Washington area and the uncertainty faced by people living in Israel. The Commission notes that Commission staff informed the complainant of these same conclusions on three occasions during the last three years," reads the decision.
