In a response from the international Asharq Alawsat to complaints submitted to it by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), the newspaper apologized for the fabricated statements attributed by one of its writers to Bahey eldin Hassan, the director of CIHRS. In its corrections section on page 9 of the issue of Thursday, March 6, the newspaper stated that a statement which appeared in the story “American human rights report is unbalanced and untrue” was erroneously attributed to Hassan. Since Hassan did not make the statement, it was incumbent on the newspaper to issue a retraction and an apology.
The CIHRS appreciates the newspaper’s response to the statement published on our organization’s website on March 4 regarding this matter as well as its willingness to remove the false statement from its website and publish a correction.
In a previous statement, the CIHRS noted that Asharq Alawsat is an important part of the press in the Arab world. Our shock and response were commensurate with the esteem in which the newspaper is held. The error was clearly an oversight, and we wish that the Egyptian press would follow the same policy of apology and correction when necessary and as may be appropriate in light of the extent and impact of any given error.
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