SUCCESS: HR Prompts AP and The Guardian to Correct Capital of Israel

Associated Press

The Associated Press wire service supplies news articles to a huge number of media outlets around the world. Corrections are therefore extremely important.

The AP’s story “Syria says Israeli strikes hit near airport west of Damascus” included the following:

We contacted AP to point out that the text falsely implied that Tel Aviv is Israel’s seat of government and power, effectively its capital.

The text was subsequently updated and “Tel Aviv” replaced with “Israel”:

Guardian

Back in 2012, HonestReporting fought a protracted legal battle against The Guardian for its policy of calling Tel Aviv Israel’s capital. The now defunct Press Complaints Commission (PCC) initially sided with The Guardian. Despite this we continued the fight until the PCC did an about-turn and The Guardian was ultimately forced to concede that Tel Aviv is not the capital of Israel, changing its own style guide.

So it was something of a surprise to read a Guardian editorial that included the following:

We contacted The Guardian to point out that its style guide states:

Jerusalem is the seat of government and Tel Aviv is the country’s diplomatic and financial centre.

The Guardian agreed and the article now includes this correction: