Success: Times Decapitalizes Tel Aviv

On July 11, the following email was sent from HonestReporting to The Times of London:

An article in today’s Times – Cairo to seek Israeli assent for strike on Sinai jihadists – makes the following reference in the third paragraph:

Cairo, however, is constrained by the 1979 accord, which imposes curbs on Egypt’s military presence in Sinai, particularly the Israeli border zone. Any deployment must be approved by Tel Aviv.

The inference here is that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel and the seat of government. It is not.

I would draw your attention to a Press Complaints Commission adjudication from October 2012 against The Guardian, which specifically ruled that, irrespective of one’s view as to whether or not Jerusalem is the internationally recognized capital of Israel, it is inaccurate and misleading to suggest that Tel Aviv is the capital.

I hope that this error can be corrected as soon as possible.

The following day’s Times contains the following correction:

We reported (July 11) that any Egyptian military deployment in Sinai “must be approved by Tel Aviv”. This should have read “must be approved by Israel”.

This is yet another direct result of HonestReporting’s precedent-setting legal challenge to those British press who had unilaterally deemed Tel Aviv to be Israel’s capital.