Thank you very much to our witnesses.
My first question is directed to Ms. Paradkar.
We've heard a lot from the right about how journalists are unwilling to criticize the government. I believe they're wrong. If we want to look at the hesitancy to be critical of power, we need to be looking at corporate consolidation, the oligopolies that exist within the media landscape in our country and the shrinking of the number of voices that are willing to be critical of power.
You've spoken out against Israel's brutal bombing of Gaza. You faced an organized campaign of harassment that has impacted your work. If we're going to talk about journalism being under attack in the country and how we can support good, accurate journalism, we cannot ignore this reality.
We need journalists who are going to speak up about what is happening in Palestine and Canada's role there. We're talking about an intense bombing campaign that has left roughly 30,000 Palestinians dead, mostly women and children. We also know that, on average, five journalists or media workers are killed a week, the highest rate of journalist deaths since the Committee to Protect Journalists began recording this over 30 years ago.
What can we do to create a climate where these voices are heard, where journalists don't rely on the passive voice to describe the death of Palestinians, where journalists don't have to fear losing their job for accurately reporting the horrors of war and genocide?