COMMITTEE FOR ACCURACY IN MIDDLE EAST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
For the third time in three weeks – and the fifth time since last June – we’ve prompted a correction at Times of London over this erroneous suggestion regarding the status of Tel Aviv. The latest example involves a March 1st article by Gregg Carlstrom titled “Netanyahu lambasted by report on Gaza war”.
Indy editors upheld our complaint and amended the passage, which now at least includes Erdan’s unequivocal denial of Masot’s alleged affiliation with his ministry.
Contrary to the Times of Israel claim, the bill says that Palestinians who proves ownership of the land is entitled to financial compensation of 125% of the land value, or an alternative plot of land, according to his or her choice.
Though most countries don’t recognize Jerusalem as the capital (for diplomatic reasons pertaining the peace process), Israel declared Jerusalem its capital in 1949 (only ‘West’ Jerusalem until 1967) and the Knesset, Supreme Court, Prime Minister’s Office, Bank of Israel and most government ministries are located in the city. So, it would seem intuitive for journalists and editors – whatever their views regarding the political issues at play – would use the word “Jerusalem” to convey this simple fact to readers.
It’s important to note that, in 2012, the Press Complaints Commission ruled that it is wrong to state that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel.
Whatever one’s views on Israeli construction across the green line, the narrative often advanced in the UK media – of new settlements expanding at ‘a record pace’, eating away at ‘huge swaths’ of Palestinian territory and rendering a future Palestinian state nearly impossible – is, at best, extraordinarily misleading.
Though The Independent’s response to our email over the headline was delayed due to the holidays, they recently informed us that they upheld our complaint, and revised the headlines.
On May 16th 2015 the BBC News website ran a story titled “Pope Francis calls Palestinians’ Abbas ‘angel of peace’” which was discussed here….
Earlier today, we heard back from Sky producers, informing us that they upheld our complaint and thanked us for bringing the information to their attention – particularly the AP correction.
Yesterday, we posted and tweeted about the following egregious error in a report at The Telegraph on the scandal surrounding comments by a low-level…