On December 24th the BBC News website published a report titled “Israel sets date for elections“.
“Israel is to hold a general election in April, the ruling coalition has said.
The political partners decided to call the poll after failing to resolve a dispute over a draft conscription bill for ultra-Orthodox Jews. […]
The ruling coalition was recently reduced to holding a one-seat majority in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) after the then-defence minister resigned in protest over what he said was a weak approach towards dealing with attacks from Gaza, the Palestinian enclave bordering Israel.
By Sunday night it was clear the government faced collapse after ultra-Orthodox parties threatened to withdraw over the draft conscription bill.”
So far so good. However readers were then told that “[e]lections had to be held by November this year”.
Coming in an article published in 2018, readers would obviously understand “November this year” to mean November 2018 – i.e. last month.
In fact the next elections were due to be held by November 2019.
BBC Watch contacted the BBC News website to request a correction and although no acknowledgement was received, the article was amended several hours later.
