Ruling by the Press Ombudsman
11 July 2015
This ruling is based on the written submissions of Ms Felicia Levy and those of Kashiefa Ajam, acting editor of the Saturday Star newspaper.
Complaint
Felicia Levy is complaining about an opinion piece in the Saturday Star of 20 June 2015, headlined Tide of desperate refugees is swelling.
She complains about the:
· statement that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israelis “carry on to this day”;
· (inflated) number of Palestine refugees mentioned in the article; and
· omission of the reasons for the refugee problem.
The text
The opinion piece, written by Janet Smith, was about World Refugee Day. She referred to the situations in Johannesburg, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Myanmar.
Levy complains about this section:
“Seven thousand kilometres away, in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, disparate groups of among the most oppressed and dislocated people in the world, the Palestinians, dream only of going home.
“It’s been 67 years since the ethnic cleansing of Palestine saw massacres, widescale expulsions and demolitions – which carry on to this day. The ancestors of the refugees watched in terror as their villages were destroyed by militia of the State of Israel, before they were commanded to leave their histories and their lives, many at gunpoint. Today more than 2 million Palestinians are refugees with no hope of return.”
Analysis
Smith replies that she did not mean to say that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, massacres and wide-scale expulsions “carry on to this day” – this phrase, she argues, referred only to demolitions (that are still ongoing).
Levy has a point in that many readers probably have interpreted this sentence in the way she does. While Smith admits she did not mean it that way, it would be in the interest of everybody concerned to clarify this issue.
I am not going to challenge the number of refugees – Smith says the figure of two million she mentioned is even less that the official UN statistics. The article also mentioned a website in this regard. The number of refugees is a bone of contention and it is not for me to decide who is right and who is wrong.
If the whole article was about the Palestinian issue, I would have expected Smith to delve into the reasons for the ongoing conflict (from both sides). However, given the fact that the piece was about World Refugee Day, and she in fact mentioned nine countries, I cannot expect of her to have included explanations of each and every situation in all countries mentioned. That was not the purpose of the article.
Finding
Regarding the following statement, “It’s been 67 years since the ethnic cleansing of Palestine saw massacres, widescale expulsions and demolitions – which carry on to this day”: Smith has undertaken to publish a clarification in this regard. That, to my mind, is all that is necessary.
The rest of the complaint is dismissed.
Sanction
Saturday Star is directed to clarify the issue as described above. If the article appeared on its website, the text should go there as well. The text should be approved by me.
The headline should reflect the content of the text. A heading such as “Matter of Fact”, or something similar, is not acceptable.
Appeal
Our Complaints Procedures lay down that within seven working days of receipt of this decision, either party may apply for leave to appeal to the Chairperson of the SA Press Appeals Panel, Judge Bernard Ngoepe, fully setting out the grounds of appeal. He can be contacted at Khanyim@ombudsman.org.za.
Johan Retief
Press Ombudsman