Newsweek changes reporting policy after Koran story retraction

WASHINGTON, Sunday (AFP)

NEWSWEEK Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Richard Smith said in a letter to readers released Sunday that the magazine was changing some of its policies after it was forced to issue a retraction over a story that alleged US soldiers treated the Koran disrespectfully.

The popular weekly US magazine -- the face of a political and media storm -- retracted a story Monday that had alleged investigators at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba flushed a Koran down the toilet to rattle Muslim inmates.

"We are deeply sorry. We got an important story wrong, and honor requires us to admit our mistake," Smith said.

The White House has called for Newsweek to "help repair the damage that has been done" by its story. A series of anti-US protests in Afghanistan in the wake of the story's publication led to the deaths of 14 people.

Smith admitted Newsweek had erred in publishing the May 2 Koran story, but also pointed out a "well-placed and historically reliable source" had changed position on the story after publication, forcing the magazine to issue its retraction.

As a result, "the cryptic phrase 'sources said' will never again be the sole attribution for a story in Newsweek," Smith explained.

He said new standards being introduced at the magazine will only permit the editor or the managing editor, or other top editors they specifically appoint, to sign off on the use of an anonymous source.

"Tacit affirmation by anyone," no matter how highly placed, will not qualify as a secondary source, Smith said.

In addition, "in the weeks to come we will be reviewing ways to improve our news-gathering processes overall," Smith said.

The Newsweek chairman said the episode had been "frustrating" because the magazine has "taken so many appropriate steps in reporting the Guantanamo story."

Following fresh investigation in the past week, Newsweek reported Sunday -- in a bid to try and clarify one particular incident involving a Koran at Guantanamo -- that "guards found an inmate who admitted he had dropped his Koran near the toilet."

Based on a interview with Command Sergeant John VanNatta, who served as the prison's warden from October 2002 to the fall of 2003, VanNatta recounted this incident which occurred in 2002, according to Newsweek.

Guantanamo inmates became angry after assuming that their US guards had thrown a Koran on or near an Asian-style squat toilet.

However, the magazine reported that the guards, upon investigation, found an inmate who admitted he had dropped his Koran near the toilet.

"According to VanNatta, the inmate then was taken cell to cell to explain this to other detainees to quell the unrest. But the incident could partly account for the multiple allegations among detainees," that have arisen about alleged Koran abuse by US guards, the report said.