From: Lillian Swanson, Ombudsman, The Philadelphia Inquirer
June 15, 2001
Dear Ahmed,
I was sorry to see that you issued a call for a worldwide e-mail
campaign about The Inquirer's publication of a map that failed to show
that the Golan Heights is occupied territory. When you wrote to me on
Monday, I asked you for a little time to consider your e-mail and respond to you.
As you can imagine, I am dealing with many questions and issues at the
same time, and I want to give each of them their due consideration. I fully
intended to respond by the end of the week, and had already initiated
conversations here in the newsroom with the key people.
As I have said before, these daily critiques and a worldwide call
are really counter-productive to your cause and your issue. No newspaper
will respond to it. In fact, it only increases the chance that we will not
hear you when it is most critical.
As to the instant case, we have decided to review all our maps of
the area, discard any that are not up-to-date, and have actually begun that
process. We will also convene a meeting of the appropriate desks next
week to review the maps we will run. So, you can see, your e-mail to Paul
and me prompted that action.
We do not intend to run a correction to the map we ran on June 2
because it was a locator map of the region, accompanying a story about the
bombing in Tel Aviv. The Golan Heights had nothing to do with that story, and,
in fact, should have been cropped out of the map.
Editors here say the newspaper has run many maps of the region
that do show the Golan Heights as occupied territory. So, I think this case is
really a slip-up -- which unfortunately has occurred twice -- and is
not a systematic attempt on the paper's part to redraw the region.
I hope that our relationship will continue to be one of working
together and respecting our sometimes differing views on controversial
subjects. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Lil Swanson
[Philadelphia Inquirer Ombudsman]
[lswanson@phillynews.com]
Response sent on June 15, 2001
Dear Lil:
Thank you for your response.
First, I want to clarify that our decision to bring
attention to the Inquirer's faulty map was not off the
cuff: we pointed out the mistake in our May 9th
letter, in our monthly recap in our May report on June
1st, then again on June 9th, and once again after
that. That is, four times.
I would have expected a swift reaction not on the
fourth time, but on the first time. I understand that
you are busy, but publishing an erroneous map about a
conflict that is 99% about borders and land is
serious. Failing to pick up the mistake when pointed
out to you is more serious. Failing to react to it
after FOUR warnings in the span of a month is
bordering on the very very serious. So, I don't think
that PMWatch flew off the cuff: you had one month
and four communications to do something about it and
you did not. You did not even indicate to me that you
are taking the issue seriously, beside the one line
that you would "have to think about it", which to me
communicated that the issue was not that serious as
far as you were concerend.
Regarding the notion that "the Golan Heights had
nothing to do with that story" -- I am a bit shocked
by this rationalization. Again, this is an EXTREMELY
sensitive story, as you well know, and as I said, maps
and territories are at the heart of the conflict.
Moreover, whether the story was or was not about the
Golan Heights, your standards of excellence and
accuracy should not be so below par that you would
tolerate printing an erroneous map. Maybe a high
school student will do a presentation next week about
the crisis, and maybe she will photocopy your map and
make a presentation. In that map, the Golan heights
will be shown as part of Israel. Would you want to
contribute to the misinformation of trusting children?
(No wonder Americans are notoriously bad in geography! :)
In any case, I am glad to hear that you are finally
taking the matter seriously and will make sure that
all future maps will be accurate and will depict
occupied land as occupied. I and many people who have
been offended by your repeated faulty map would have
appreciated an erratum. It would have proven that you
are willing to be hard on yourselves when you goof and
that you always strive to be the best that you can be.
Thank you for your attention and we, at pmwatch, also
hope to continue our working, and otherwise -- as far
as we concerned -- pleasant relationship.
Yours,
Ahmed Bouzid
President
Palestine Media Watch
http://www.pmwatch.org
Action call issued by PMWatch on June 14, 2001
Since May 9, 2001, The Philadelphia Inquirer has twice published
a map of Israel that shows the Golan Heights as an integral part of Israel
and not as occupied territories, as it does for the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestine Media Watch has issued repeated complaints about these errata
-- see:
Letter sent on May 9, 2001
Report issued on June 1, 2001
Letter sent on June 10, 2001
Here is the map -- compare it to the one published by Britannica:
To this day, the Inquirer has yet to respond to our complaints,
let alone issuing an erratum.
Issuing faulty maps, and doing so repeatedly is serious enough.
Doing so after repeated alerts about their faulty nature is alarming.
Please impress upon the Inquirer to issue an erratum on the maps
and to promise in the future to publish accurate maps.
Please contact:
Paul Nussbaum:
pnussbaum@phillynews.com
-- Inquirer Foreign Desk Editor
Rebecca Klock: rklock@phillynews.com
-- Inquirer Deputy Foreign Desk Editor
Lillian Swanson:
lswanson@phillynews.com
-- Inquirer readers Ombudsman
Barbara Demick:
bdemick@phillynews.com
-- Inquirer Correspondent to the Middle East
Nomi Morris:
nmorris@krwashington.com
-- Knight Ridder Middle East Bureau Chief
Letters:
inquirer.letters@phillynews.com
-- Letters to the editor
For your convenience, here are the emails in a cc-friendly format:
pnussbaum@phillynews.com , rkolck@phillynews.com ,
lswanson@phillynews.com , bdemick@phillynews.com ,
nmorris@krwashington.com, inquirer.letters@phillynews.com
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