Newsweek changes sourcing policy
Magazine reacts to protests over Quran desecration story

CNN, 22/05/05

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Newsweek magazine will only use anonymous sources
with the approval of a top editor from now on, the editor said Sunday after
a retracted report on abuse of the Quran ignited riots in the Muslim world.
"From now on, only the editor or the managing editor, or other top editors
they specifically appoint, will have the authority to sign off on the use of
an anonymous source," Richard M. Smith, Newsweek's chairman and
editor-in-chief, wrote in the edition of the magazine for sale this week.
The name and position of such a source will be shared with the top editor,
and the magazine will try to characterize the source appropriately, Smith
said in his letter to readers explaining how news-gathering procedures would
be improved following the retracted report.
"The cryptic phrase 'sources said' will never again be the sole attribution
for a story in Newsweek," he said.
Newsweek retracted its May 9 article last week, saying it could not
substantiate the report that an internal military investigation had
uncovered Quran abuse at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The retracted article said interrogators had flushed at least one copy of
the Muslim holy book down a toilet to try to make detainees talk.
With anti-American sentiment strong in the Muslim world because of the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and abuse of Abu Ghraib prisoners, the report
prompted violent protests in Afghanistan -- where 16 people were killed and
many hurt -- as well as Pakistan, Indonesia and Gaza.
Smith, in his letter to readers, pledged a renewed effort to seek a second
source or other corroborating evidence for stories. If the public interest
requires the use of a single confidential source, the magazine will try to
give the subject of the story a chance to confirm, deny or correct the
report before publication, he said.
"Tacit affirmation," as had taken place in the Quran story, would not
qualify as a secondary source, Smith wrote. "We will continue to value
accuracy above all else."
He said, however, that he had seen nothing to suggest that the magazine's
reporters acted unethically or unprofessionally in the retracted report.
Reporter Michael Isikoff had relied on a well-placed and historically
reliable government source, Smith said.
The magazine then provided the entire story to a senior Defense Department
official, who said nothing about the charge of abusing the Quran. "We
mistakenly took the official's silence for confirmation," Smith wrote.
Newsweek said last week that its source for the story later told the
magazine he could not be certain he had seen the account of the Quran
incident in a military report on abuse at Guantanamo Bay and that it might
have been in other investigative documents.

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