Scottish paper finally retracts false claim about chemo in Gaza

On Aug. 25, we contacted editors at The National (0f Scotland) over a claim in a piece by their foreign editor David Pratt (“In Gaza there is no new normal … just the same old hell haunted by death”, Aug. 21) that “Neither chemotherapy nor radiology treatments are available due to Israeli restrictions on medication entering the strip”.

Despite providing sources to refute their allegation, as well as an email by COGAT flatly denying the charge, and sending several follow up emails, we didn’t receive a reply, which prompted us to take our complaint to IPSO – an independent regulator of the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK.

After a series of communications over nearly three months between CAMERA UK, IPSO and the newspaper, which included their editor citing a source which – upon examination – linked to a report (from 2009) that clearly didn’t back up their allegation, they finally agreed to retract the claim, and published the following editor’s note:

Related Posts
Written By
More from Adam Levick
UK newspaper apologises for antisemitic letter
Last week, we published a post criticising an appalling letter to theeditor published...
Read More
Join the Conversation

2 Comments

  1. says: Frank McGlone

    Just wondering. Was Save the Children contacted regarding its inaccurate press release? And if so, did they apologise and issue a retraction?

    1. says: Adam Levick

      That’s a good point. No, they weren’t contacted. But, we passed the info to NGO Monitor, who, as you likely know, monitors and holds such NGOs accountable to such lies. Perhaps, they’ll contact StC.

Leave a comment
Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *