The Daily Telegraph’s travel section has published a photo slideshow of “the world’s 20 oldest cities.” It includes places such as “Athens, Greece,” “Beirut, Lebanon,” “Larnaca, Cyprus” and “Damascus, Syria.”
But look at the caption for the photo of Jerusalem (click to enlarge):
“Jerusalem, Middle East.”
One HonestReporting reader contacted the Telegraph to ask why this was the case. The response:
To avoid controversy we referred to it as the Middle East as it is contested under international law. East Jerusalem is not recognised as Israeli by the UN. Therefore we tend to try to stay neutral and use Middle East.
Considering that this is a slideshow that deals with the geographical location rather than the politics of those twenty cities, is it really too much to ask the Telegraph to state the obvious?
We’ve seen plenty of times when the media have deliberately refrained from acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But failing to acknowledge its location altogether?
This is less neutrality on the Telegraph’s part and more in the realms of gross stupidity.
