AP Amends Inflated Gaza Unemployment Figure

CAMERA’s Israel office yesterday prompted correction of an Associated Press article that same day which overstated the Gaza Strip’s unemployment figure. The article, “Palestinian PM in Gaza for major reconciliation effort,” had initially reported: “Unemployment is estimated at nearly 50 percent …”
 
The latest figure from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for Gaza unemployment (second quarter of 2017), is 44 percent, ie closer to 40 than 50. A UN report published in June cites 42 percent.
 
AP commendably revised the figure later in the day yesterday (6:53 PM GMT), and the most updated version of the AP article more accurately reports: “Unemployment is estimated at over 40 percent. . . “
 
This past June, CNN corrected an article which wrongly claimed that Gaza’s unemployment rate was 65 percent.
 
CAMERA’s timely action vis-à-vis yesterday’s AP 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 helps prevent misinformation from appearing in media outlets around the world.
 
The original version did, nevertheless, appear on the Israeli English language site, Ynet.
 

Following communication from CAMERA, Ynet today amended the article, which now states that unemployment “is estimated at nearly 44 percent.”
 
For additional AP corrections prompted by CAMERA, please see here.

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