Antisemitism Report 2009 - World Jewish Congress

elites is coordinated through various national intelligence services – the CIA, the British
MI5, Israeli Mossad, etc. This is due to the general secrecy of these agencies. As well as
their traditions of deception and manipulation.‖
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Age editor apologises for “error of judgement”
ASHLEY BROWNE, Australian Jewish News
THE editorial team at The Age has offered an unreserved apology to the Jewish
community for the controversial Michael Backman column that appeared in last
Saturday’s newspaper.
A formal apology appeared on page two of Tuesday’s edition (January 20) of the
newspaper, with The Age editor Paul Ramadge telling The AJN that the anti-
Semitic views expressed by Backman “have no place at The Age. We completely
reject his views. We fully accept that the article has caused hurt and distress to
the Jewish community and we apologise without reservation,” he said.
Ramadge said the story was published while he and other senior editors were on
leave. “We have a different crew editing the paper during the holiday period,”
he said. Ramadge would not comment on whether any Age employees would
lose their jobs over the publication of the story, but did admit that more than
one Age staffer were guilty of “errors of judgement. We have taken steps to
ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again,” he said, adding that the
staffer was being dealt with internally.
Ramadge, who replaced Andrew Jaspan as editor of The Age last year, met with
community leaders Mark Leibler and Dr Colin Rubenstein on Monday and will
meet Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem on Thursday to try and repair the damage
caused by the article.
Backman’s article appeared less than two weeks after Jewish Community Council
of Victoria representatives John Searle and Geoffrey Zygier met newspaper
management to express concerns over the paper’s coverage of the war in Gaza.
Ramadge told The AJN he did not believe The Age has a credibility issue with the
Jewish community. “We’re starting to get feedback from Jewish leaders praising
us for our balanced coverage,” he said. “Not everyone will agree with everything
we publish on Israel. That comes with the territory. But we want to continue to
tell great stories and The Age will continue to have a dialogue with Jewish
leadership in that respect.”
Ramadge said he believes The Age is being proactive in dealing with disgruntled
Jewish readers on this issue. He also plans to personally respond to every letter
of complaint he has received since Backman’s article appeared on Saturday
January 17.
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