HR Prompts FT Correction on Israeli Politician

The Financial Times‘ coverage of the police recommendation to indict Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on bribery charges included the following:

Yoel Hasson, however, is not the “leader of the Zionist Union.”

We contacted the FT to point out that Hasson is a member of Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party, part of the Zionist Union. He also happens to be a deputy speaker of the Knesset.

While he is the Zionist Union’s faction head, this is a whip position, essentially the official whose task it is to ensure party discipline.

The FT promptly issued the following clarification at the end of the story:

While we commend the FT for quickly correcting the error (and unlike many other media outlets, acknowledging it), this isn’t the first time that the FT’s man in Jerusalem, Mehul Srivastava, has made a factual error when it comes to Israeli politics.