A veteran journalist says Canadian coverage of Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip — a military campaign widely condemned as a genocide — has exposed a crisis in contemporary journalism.

“We have witnessed the deliberate erasure of context, the dehumanization of Palestinian lives, and the wholesale collapse of journalistic standards in the Canadian corporate media landscape,” said Samira Mohyeddin.

She made the remarks Tuesday evening during the NB Media Co-op’s 16th annual keynote address.

An award-winning journalist, Mohyeddin spent nearly a decade as a producer with CBC’s The Current before resigning in November 2023 to launch her own digital journalism company, On the Line Media.

She pointed to a CBC interview that drew condemnation from groups including Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East when it aired in January.

“A CBC host was interviewing a Palestinian-Canadian guest who was trying to get her family out of Gaza. She spoke about losing her brother in the first weeks of this genocide,” Mohyeddin recalled. “She used the word genocide, describing her grief and helplessness. After she spoke for four minutes, the host responded that ‘we cannot use that word to describe what is happening, it’s before the International Criminal Court.’”

In fact, the case is before the International Court of Justice, Mohyeddin noted.

“What is happening in Gaza is not a conflict. It is not a war. It is a genocide,” she said. “And journalism in this country has not only failed to name it but has become complicit in covering it up.”

The 1948 United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”

Mohyeddin highlighted remarks from Omer Bartov — an Israeli-American historian and leading authority on genocide and the Holocaust — who argued in a recent CBC interview that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“He talks about the systemic destruction of civilian infrastructure — the bombing of schools, universities, hospitals, the decimation of the healthcare system — laying out how Israel meets all the criteria in the genocide convention,” she said.

But she criticized the CBC host’s questions as “inane.” At one point, the host asked: “Who is perpetuating a genocide in your mind? What group in particular?” Bartov replied: “The State of Israel.”

“Instead of engaging with a preeminent Holocaust and genocide scholar, the host reduced him to someone whose biggest challenge might be family disapproval,” Mohyeddin said.

She argued that journalists often soften their reporting under pressure from pro-Israel groups such as HonestReporting Canada, which runs online smear campaigns against media workers it deems biased.

“We are in a crisis of journalism, not because journalists are failing to file stories, but because the craft itself is being hollowed out by fear, complicity, and institutional cowardice,” she said.

Last week, a UN commission of inquiry found Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, affirming what many critics have argued for nearly two years.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 65,419 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023 — including more than 19,000 children — figures cited by Al Jazeera. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has said the true toll is likely ten times higher. The Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel reportedly killed about 1,200 people.

Tuesday’s event, held online via Zoom, was twice hijacked in a so-called “Zoom Bombing.” Pornographic clips, a crudely drawn swastika, and at one point, a Ku Klux Klan-style anthem played over an image of George Floyd appeared on screen.

Organizers shut down and restarted the meeting, allowing Mohyeddin to finish her address. She brushed off the disruption, noting she has faced far worse harassment — including death threats and threats of violence, experiences common among women journalists of colour.

In 2023, an Iranian restaurant in Toronto that Mohyeddin co-owned was vandalized and ransacked after an independent Ontario MPP posted the business’s name online.

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David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting was made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).