Accuracy and accountability are among the most important tenets of journalism. In combination, they mean media organizations are expected to publish or broadcast forthright corrections after sharing inaccurate information. The following corrections are among the many prompted by CAMERA’s communication with reporters and editors.
CAMERA prompts the correction of more than one dozen AFP captions which whitewashed Hamas terrorist Bassam al-Sayeh, erasing his conviction for his role in the October 2015 shooting murder of Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin in front of their four children. Editors commendably add the essential information and fix additional problematic elements of the captions.
CAMERA prompts correction after AFP erroneously reported that Israel's extremist far-right Jewish Power party is in an electoral alliance with other right-wing parties. While such a pact existed in the April 2019 election, Jewish Power is running alone in the September race.
CAMERA prompts more objective language at AFP which yesterday editorialized, stating as fact the partisan view that settlements jeopardizes the option for a two-state solution. The improved article now attributes the view to Palestinians and many other governments.
Numerous AFP and Reuters photo captions today misidentify a Hamas site hit overnight in an Israeli airstrike as an "under-construction seaport" even as Hamas has acknowledged the site as a base. Update: AFP and Reuters amend their captions.
CAMERA prompts correction after AFP that Jerusalem became a city sacred to Jews during the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. In fact, the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem came some 1500 years after the city gained its holy status in Judaism and centuries after it became holy in Christianity.
CAMERA today prompts correction of a series of AFP captions which erroneously reported that access to the Dome of the Rock Muslim shrine has been cut off since 2003.
CAMERA prompts correction after an AFP story about Mehdi Nemmouche, accused of killing four in the 2014 terror attack at a Brussels Jewish museum, opened with a description of him as a "'very polite' Frenchman."
An AFP infographic grossly minimizes the impact of Palestinian attacks on Israel while at the same time emphasizing the impact of Israel's military response on Gaza.
An AFP article today falsely depicts the destruction of a Beersheba home, which this morning suffered a direct hit from a rocket fired from Gaza, as limited to "damage to the garden of the family home." CAMERA prompts correction.