As recently as February, HonestReporting flagged a noticeable increase in the number of publications “mistakenly” using Tel Aviv as a synonym for Israel’s capital. The problem has been a constant source of corrections for many years as numerous media outlets have stubbornly refused to recognize the de facto reality that Jerusalem is the capital city, instead referring to Israel’s second city.
Whatever one’s view of Jerusalem’s status, Tel Aviv is most definitely not Israel’s capital, and implying as much is equivalent to placing New York over Washington DC, Manchester over London, or Sydney over Canberra.
Thankfully, while this is the most common factual error we find in the international media, it is usually corrected once brought to the attention of editors.
Not recently, however, with The Guardian and its Sunday sister paper The Observer, which both used Tel Aviv as a synonym for Israel’s capital four times in the space of five days: April 20, April 16, and twice on April 15.
This is the fourth time in a week that @guardian or @ObserverUK have used Tel Aviv as a synonym for Israel's capital Jerusalem.
And yet the media outlet has failed to respond to requests to correct the error. Is this now a deliberate policy to mislead?https://t.co/n8XiXjoyIg pic.twitter.com/9K26p7k2W4
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 21, 2024
It's sad enough that a @guardian journalist does a copy-paste of the opening paragraph from a previous day's story.
But worse, it repeats the same error – Tel Aviv is not Israel's capital.
How many identical corrections do we need to keep demanding?https://t.co/2JRT3n4XG3 https://t.co/AX1JgsRzmY pic.twitter.com/8OZaasz7w6
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 17, 2024
HonestReporting lodged complaints with both The Guardian and The Observer’s readers’ editors, in the expectation of seeing changes made to each of the stories.
While in the past, this would have been the case, this time there has been no response whatsoever.
Unacceptable as this is, it is even more so given The Guardian’s history on this very issue.
We’ve Been Here Before
Let’s take a look at the entry for “Jerusalem” in The Guardian’s current style guide:
While it’s a step too far for The Guardian to refer to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, it’s worth recalling that in 2012, the style guide stated Jerusalem “is not the capital of Israel; Tel Aviv is.”
After the paper issued a correction apologizing for calling Jerusalem the capital of Israel, HonestReporting submitted a complaint to the then-UK media regulatory body, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), which, shockingly, ruled in favor of The Guardian. We were not prepared to see such a precedent stand and for the first time in HonestReporting’s history, we launched legal proceedings against the PCC with the threat of a judicial review of the PCC’s decision.
Under pressure, the PCC retracted its ruling, forcing The Guardian to back down and update its style guide.
Eventually, the PCC issued a precedent-setting ruling that The Guardian had violated principles of accuracy when it stated that Tel Aviv was the capital of Israel.
While the PCC no longer exists, the precedent does and has served as a guide to all UK media in subsequent years.
Today, it appears that The Guardian is attempting to establish a fait accompli. The rash of examples above and the failure to respond to complaints, let alone issue corrections, is potentially indicative of a new and unwelcome attitude on the paper’s part.
The Guardian is also resistant to any external independent oversight. With the PCC consigned to history, The Guardian is not a member of its successor, the Independent Press Standards Organization (IPSO), preferring to regulate itself in-house.
With a flood of coverage amid the Israel-Hamas war, perhaps The Guardian is using the opportunity to create new “facts on the ground.”
We will not let that happen.
HonestReporting fought The Guardian in 2012 and won. We are prepared to fight again.
Take Action Now
You can make a difference.
Contact The Guardian readers’ editor – [email protected] – and refer to three stories (1), (2), and (3) that breach the Editorial Code on accuracy by implying that Tel Aviv is Israel’s capital.
Contact The Observer readers’ editor – [email protected] – and do the same for this story.
UPDATE – May 5
On May 3, two days after the publication of this article, The Guardian and The Observer issued corrections in all four cases featured above.
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