A FAULTY DESCRIPTION OF IGNATIUS

Hurriyet
ish/domestic/10911933.asp?scr=1
Jan 3 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – The prime ministerial walkout from the Davos summit
last Thursday generated a lot of blame, directed explicitly at the
moderator, David Ignatius, and implicitly at his identity, Jewish
and Armenian. Except that Ignatius is not.

Many Turkish newspapers, including the Hurriyet Daily News &
Economic Review, reported over the weekend that Ignatius was of
Jewish and Armenian origins, based on a Wikipedia entry: "Ignatius,
(born to a Jewish family May, 26 1950) an American journalist and
novelist of Armenian descent." Later, however, Wikipedia modified
content on Ignatius’profile page to say he "is of Armenian descent
with ancestors from Nor Kharberd." Ignatius is not Jewish. How the
mistake occurred is unknown but it was soon corrected in the Internet
encyclopedia early Saturday.

The origins of the moderator was reported in Turkish media for
different reasons. Some conservative newspapers tried to show his
ancestry as proof of his "biased" stance. For others, his origin was
provided only as an informative detail for people who had not heard
of him.

The daily Radikal, wrote in one of its captions "Jewish Journalist"
for Ignatius last Friday while reporting the heated debate between
Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
in Davos.

"The first lesson of this, is of course, that journalists should eye
Wikipedia warily," said David Judson, Daily News editor-in-chief. "It’s
a great resource, but it is assembled by volunteers and we need to
remember that.

The second is that in a highly combustible story such as this one,
extra care needs to be given to ethnic monikers as they can easily
become the tool of demagogues.

And it’s hard to escape the conclusion that there was some demagogic
tampering with Wikipedia in the midst of this dust-up."

Judson regrets contribution of paper to misunderstanding Judson said
this represented a failure of standards at the Daily News and added he
apologized to readers and Ignatius for any contribution the newspaper
may have made to the misunderstanding.

Ceyda Karan, the foreign news editor of daily Radikal blamed that
newspaper’s error on an intern downloading of information from
Wikipedia. After the newspaper was published, she said, they noticed
the mistake and corrected it in Radikal’s Internet version.

According to Karan, Wikipedia had lost credibility as a result. "They
claim to offer accurate information. They should have been more
careful," she said.

Although there should be no problem citing the origin of a person,
it can become controversial in cases such as this and it is better
not to mention it, Karan said. "We talked about that later in our
editorial meeting. We believe it is not necessary to mention his ethnic
origins. He is an American journalist and that’s all," said Karan. She
also said it’s been a good lesson for their intern too about Wikipedia.

Ignatius identified himself as an Armenian-American in an Oct. 14, 2007
Washington Post article discussing the history of Turkish-Armenian
relations. He said in that article that some of his own relatives
perished in the events of 1915. He has been variously described in
the Turkish press as having roots in the Anatolian city of Harput
and also as having roots in Armenia.

A colleague and friend of Ignatius, CNNTurk correspondent Ahu Ozyurt,
said underlining Ignatius’ ethnic or religious origins in the Turkish
media did not do any good but only served to increase racism in Turkey.

Islamist media, especially television, uses people’s origins too
extensively to target people, such as Ignatius, even though he is
not part of any kind of anti-Turkey lobby, said Ozyurt, who reports
for daily Milliyet as well as CNNTurk.

"Ignatius joined in all the editorial board meetings at the Washington
Post that occur with a Turkish representative," said Ozyurt Ignatius
is a good journalist who really knows about the Middle East and has
a great respect for Ottoman heritage, "He uses the Ottoman term Pasha
in his novels for strong characters."

Referring to the false information in Wikipedia, Ozyurt said it could
have been a mistaken entry or there may be another reason. She said
it was carelessness by Turkish journalists, however, who published
this information from Wikipedia. "Wikipedia is not a primary source,
especially for journalists.

I know it was late at night when newspapers in Turkey went to print
that day, but they should still check this," said Ozyurt. Moreover,
Ignatius is not an unknown person in Turkey and Turkish media. He
was in Turkey to promote his recent movie "Body of Lies" around two
months ago, said Ozyurt.

Despite repeated calls and emails to Ignatius, the Daily News could
not reach him. He had said to friends that he would not talk about
the issue. "I think he believes he has been pulled into a fight in
Davos that he is not a part of," said Ozyurt.

Wikipedia had not responded to the Daily News questions when the
newspaper went to press.