Earlier, we tweeted this to journalist Caroline Mortimer in response to her article published today (Sept. 14th) at the Independent titled “US agrees to give Israel $38bn in military aid despite tensions over Iran deal and West Bank settlements policy”.
.@CJMortimer This falsely suggests that Tel Aviv is Israeli capital. I hope it can be fixed https://t.co/m8NoEApqzd pic.twitter.com/ryMZ74O67V
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) September 14, 2016
We also were among those who logged an official complaint at the Indy.
A couple of hours later, they corrected the sentence, and replaced Tel Aviv with Israel.
Interestingly, this represents at least the fourth such British media correction this year to a false claim regarding Tel Aviv’s status.
- In August, UK Media Watch prompted a correction to a Guardian report which included a sentence suggesting to readers that Tel Aviv was Israel’s capital.
- In June, UK Media Watch prompted a correction to a Times of London article which twice used “Tel Aviv” as a synonym for Israel’s capital.
- In March, UK Media Watch prompted a correction at the Daily Mirror in an article which explicitly referred to Tel Aviv as the nation’s capital.
For more background on the British media’s continuing problems with accurately naming Israel’s capital, see here and here.
Related articles
- UK Media Watch prompts Guardian correction to claim Tel Aviv is Israeli capital (ukmediawatch.org)
- What the Guardian can teach the Czech Ministry of Education about Israel (ukmediawatch.org)
- Guardian writer claims Google excluding Palestine to please customers. (ukmediawatch.org)
