Times Apologises to Al-jazeera

The Times has apologized to al-Jazeera after mistaking a website that made inflammatory comments about British troops in Iraq for the Arabic news broadcaster’s own online service.

Today’s edition of the Times carried a prominent apology on its leader page, a day after the paper accused the satellite news service of deliberately inflaming tensions in the Middle East over footage of British troops beating Iraqi prisoners.

Yesterday a Times leader column damned the "supposedly prestigious" broadcaster and detailed inflammatory comments made on aljazeera.com, which is in fact completely independent of al-Jazeera’s official website, aljazeera.net.

But today the paper apologized to the Arabic broadcaster for confusing the websites.

"The al-Jazeera television network has no connection with that particular website (aljazeera.com) and has a separate website (aljazeera.net) which did not carry the same inflammatory comments," the Times said.

"We apologize to al-Jazeera for this mistake."

Yesterday’s Times editorial stated: "It is no surprise that there are now serious concerns for the safety of army members in Iraq and elsewhere."

The editorial detailed how aljazeera.com labeled the beatings "Another episode in ‘Iraq War Crimes’ series" and a chat room hosted comments including "Let Sharon’s painful death be the punishment for his crimes!" and "Would you sentence Sharon, Blair or Bush to death?".

"Sir David Frost, the station’s new signing, might wish to be aware of the unsavory company that he is keeping," the leader said.

Aljazeera.com lists its address as a post office box in Dubai but has a London telephone number. In the "about us" section of the website, it states that it was established more than 12 years ago and is not associated with the al-Jazeera satellite channel.

Al-Jazeera International, the English-language version of the Qatar-based broadcaster’s successful Arabic channel, will launch in the spring.