Media and Muslims
Leader: Newsweek executives and journalists will be relieved to hear that Afghan mullahs have deferred a call for jihad - holy war - against the United States, following the magazine's retraction of a story about how a Qur'an was flushed down a toilet at the GuantĂ¡namo Bay prison.
Newsweek executives and journalists will be relieved to hear that Afghan mullahs have deferred a call for jihad - holy war - against the United States, following the magazine's retraction of a story about how a Qur'an was flushed down a toilet at the Guantánamo Bay prison. Newsweek has understandably been embarrassed by an episode which highlights issues of media accuracy and ethics in an unusually painful way. Not many stories can be blamed, after all, for sparking deadly protests, with 16 people, outraged by the abuse of Islam's holy book, reportedly killed in Afghanistan and scores injured in Pakistan, Indonesia and Gaza.
Newsweek admitted that the piece was based on a single anonymous source, though a credible one, referring to an unpublished army report. The context, too, was depressingly familiar, following well-documented abuses of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. To the magazine's credit, it has been transparent about what went wrong, but insisted the story was written in good faith. It should, however, have been far more attuned to the likely consequences of what it reported. British journalists, not necessarily always paragons of accuracy and sensitivity, might have been more aware after their experience of the Salman Rushdie affair.
The US administration and conservative media have been quick to claim the moral high ground and blame Newsweek. But it is wrong to suggest that all war coverage is tarnished and that journalists must defer to a government not known for its own transparency or accountability, which has pursued highly controversial policies in Iraq and the "war on terror". On the contrary, reporting in wartime requires an especially robust attitude. In this case, the Pentagon did not comment on the allegation until uproar began in the Muslim world. Now the state department has instructed all embassies to put out the message that the US believes in religious tolerance - more than can be said for some of its enemies. If that has any impact, it would be an unintended useful consequence of a very unhappy affair.
Newsweek admitted that the piece was based on a single anonymous source, though a credible one, referring to an unpublished army report. The context, too, was depressingly familiar, following well-documented abuses of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. To the magazine's credit, it has been transparent about what went wrong, but insisted the story was written in good faith. It should, however, have been far more attuned to the likely consequences of what it reported. British journalists, not necessarily always paragons of accuracy and sensitivity, might have been more aware after their experience of the Salman Rushdie affair.
The US administration and conservative media have been quick to claim the moral high ground and blame Newsweek. But it is wrong to suggest that all war coverage is tarnished and that journalists must defer to a government not known for its own transparency or accountability, which has pursued highly controversial policies in Iraq and the "war on terror". On the contrary, reporting in wartime requires an especially robust attitude. In this case, the Pentagon did not comment on the allegation until uproar began in the Muslim world. Now the state department has instructed all embassies to put out the message that the US believes in religious tolerance - more than can be said for some of its enemies. If that has any impact, it would be an unintended useful consequence of a very unhappy affair.
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