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Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 06:59:21 -0400
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 Wednesday > May 24 > 2006 
  
Our mistake: Note to readers
  
Douglas Kelly 
National Post 


Wednesday, May 24, 2006


Last Friday, the National Post ran a story prominently on the front page
alleging that the Iranian parliament had passed a law that, if enacted, would
require Jews and other religious minorities in Iran to wear badges that would
identify them as such in public. It is now clear the story is not true. Given
the seriousness of the error, I felt it necessary to explain to our readers how
this happened.

The story of the alleged badge law first came to us in the form of a column by
Amir Taheri. Mr. Taheri, an Iranian author and journalist, has written widely on
Iran for many major publications. In his column, Mr. Taheri wrote at length
about the new law, the main purpose of which is to establish an appropriate
dress code for Muslims. Mr. Taheri went on to say that under the law, "Religious
minorities would have their own colour schemes. They will also have to wear
special insignia, known as zonnar, to indicate their non-Islamic faith."

This extraordinary allegation caught our attention, of course. The idea that
Iran might impose such a law did not seem out of the question given that its
President has denied the Holocaust and threatened to "wipe Israel off the map."
We tried to contact Mr. Taheri, but he was in transit and unreachable.

The editor who was dealing with Mr. Taheri's column wrote to Rabbi Abraham
Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. The
Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization that
keeps a close watch on issues affecting the treatment of Jews around the world,
and maintains contacts in many countries, including Iran. Asked about the
specific allegation that Iran had passed a law requiring religious minorities to
identify themselves, Rabbi Cooper replied by e-mail that the story was
"absolutely true." When a reporter spoke to Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, a short while later, Rabbi Hier said the story
was true and added that the organization had sent a letter to UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking him to take up the matter. (Rabbi Hier has
since said that, contrary to the understanding of the reporter, the Wiesenthal
Center had not independently confirmed Mr. Taheri's allegation.)

The reporter also spoke with two Iranian exiles in Canada -- Ali Behroozian in
Toronto and Shahram Golestaneh in Ottawa. Both said that they had heard the the
story of the badges from their contacts in Iran and they believed it to be true.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Department did not respond to questions about the issue
until after deadline, and then only to say they were looking into the matter.
After several calls to the Iranian embassy in Ottawa, the reporter reached
Hormoz Ghahremani, a spokesman for the embassy. Mr. Ghahremani's response to the
allegation was that he did not answer such questions.

We now had four sources -- Mr. Taheri, the Wiesenthal Center and two Iranian
exiles in Canada -- telling us that according to their sources the Iranian law
appeared to include provisions for compelling religious minorities to identify
themselves in public. Iranian authorities in Canada had not denied the story.
Given the sources, and given the previous statements of the Iranian President,
we felt confident the story was true and decided to publish it.

The reaction was immediate and distressing. Several experts whom the reporter
had tried unsuccessfully to contact the day before called to say the story was
not true. The Iranian embassy put out a statement late in the day doing what it
had failed to do the day before -- unequivocally deny such a law had been
passed.

The reporter continued to try to determine whether there was any truth to the
story. Some sources said there had been some peripheral discussion in the
Iranian parliament of identifying clothing for minority religions, but it became
clear that the dress code bill, which was introduced on May 14 and has not yet
been passed into law, does not include such provisions.

Mr. Taheri, who had written the column that sparked the story, was again
unreachable on Friday. He has since put out a statement saying the National Post
and others "jumped the gun" in our characterization of his column. He says he
was only saying the provisions affecting minorities might happen at some point.
All of the people who read the column on the first day took it to mean the
measure was part of a law that had been passed. Mr. Taheri maintains the zonnar,
or badges, could still be put in effect when the dress code law is implemented.

On Saturday, the National Post ran another front-page story above the fold with
the Iranian denial and the comments of the experts casting doubts on the
original story.

It is corporate policy for all of CanWest's media holdings to face up to their
mistakes in an honest, open fashion. It is also the right thing to do
journalistically.

We acknowledge that on this story, we did not exercise sufficient caution and
skepticism, and we did not check with enough sources. We should have pushed the
sources we did have for more corroboration of the information they were giving
us. That is not to say that we ignored basic journalistic practices or that we
rushed this story into print with no thought as to the consequences. But given
the seriousness of the allegations, more was required.

We apologize for the mistake and for the consternation it has caused not just
National Post readers, but the broader public who read the story. We take this
incident very seriously, and we are examining our procedures to try to ensure
such an error does not happen again.

Douglas Kelly,

Editor-in-Chief

National Post

C National Post 2006
 




 
 
 
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