CAMERA’s Israel office yesterday prompted correction of an Agence France Presse article which incorrectly stated that the 1976 Entebbe hijackers singled out Israelis, keeping them hostage. In fact, the Palestinian and German hijackers singled out Jews, Israeli and non-Israeli alike. The Feb. 20 article (“New take on real-life hijack drama in ‘7 Days in Entebbe,'” 2:37 am GMT) had originally erred:
The divergent motivations of the kidnappers became evident when they separate out the Israeli passengers in scenes that chillingly evoke the Holocaust.
CAMERA contacted editors, pointing out the error, and noting that AFP’s French and Portuguese articles had accurately reported that the terrorists singled out the Jews. Moreover, AFP had previously corrected this very same error in April 2016.
In response to CAMERA’s communication, AFP commendably updated the story (2:28 pm GMT) and corrected the error. The accurate language states:
The divergent motivations of the kidnappers become evident in the film when they separate out Jewish passengers, Israelis as well as non-Israelis, in scenes that chillingly evoke the Holocaust. (Emphasis added.)
CAMERA’s timely action vis-à-vis yesterday’s AFP article underscores the value of the organization’s work monitoring and responding to wire stories in the same news cycle as they appear. With this preemptive work, CAMERA improves coverage in wire service stories before they appear in media outlets around the world.
For additional AFP corrections prompted by CAMERA, please see here.