Readers,

At 6:26 a.m. Saturday, when police began removing items from the “Gaza solidarity encampment” on Centennial Common, The News published a statement from Northeastern Vice President for Communications Renata Nyul. Throughout early Saturday morning, dozens of police officers had arrived on campus, and the statement offered the university’s explanation as to why they were present.

The university explained that, among other factors, an individual’s use of the statement “Kill the Jews” prompted administrators to take action to remove the encampment. Two members of our staff heard the statement while at the encampment, but could not confirm who said it. Because of this, we felt we had sufficient confidence that the remark had been used, which aligned with Nyul’s statement.

But as additional information became available, notably a video of a pro-Israel counter protester saying “Kill the Jews” to a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators and a local reporter offering corroborating details, we decided to publish an initial note stating our awareness of the information.

We then immediately began the process of reporting on the video, which required additional time to confirm details of the longer encounter with Huntington News reporters present during the incident. Around 12:30 p.m. Saturday, we published a complete report, detailing what happened Friday night and how the remark played a role in the university’s decision to sweep the encampment.

While we did not initially report the university’s statement as fact, rather a live situation where the university released its first statement of the day, we did not properly review the information we published.

As journalists, it is our responsibility to properly contextualize information so that our audience can fully understand our reporting. In this instance, we came up short. We appreciate our readers for holding us accountable when necessary and will continue to report all updates regarding the encampment here.

Sonel Cutler, editor-in-chief