Regret the Error » observer

Apology

Craig Silverman — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:00:55 +0000

“Said & Done” (Sport, last week, page 6) was wrong to describe Sacha Gaydamak, former owner of Portsmouth FC, as “son of billionaire convicted arms trafficker Arcady”. Mr Gaydamak was cleared of charges relating to arms dealing by the French Supreme Court on 29 April 2011. We apologise for this error. Link

Know thyself

Craig Silverman — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:00:26 +0000

“The 10-year revolution that has put food at the heart of our national conversation” (In Focus, 16 October, page 32) was wrong to claim that before the “British food renaissance” of the past decade food writers such as Jane Grigson only “found an outlet in women’s magazines or specialist books”. Paul Levy, our award-winning food and wine editor in the 1980s, makes us eat humble pie. Grigson was the Observer’s food columnist from 1968 until her death in 1990. Her long association with the paper produced some of her most successful books, including Good Things (1971), Food With the Famous (1979), The Observer Guide to European Cookery (1983) and The Observer Guide to British Cookery (1984). Apologies. Link

Fuzzy numbers etc.

Craig Silverman — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:30:03 +0000

In “Tories take donations from firm behind 200% loans” (News, last week, page 11), we noted that one man “nearly bought a £ 7,000 car from ACF that would have ended up costing him £ 325 a month over 60 months, a total cost of £ 19,500, equivalent to an interest rate of almost 200%.” This is not an interest rate (which would be an annual or monthly figure) of 200%. It is a total interest payment of 178% of the original loan spread over five years, which would give an APR of just over 51%. Link

Know your ancient gods

Craig Silverman — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:30:19 +0000

A profile of the Icelandic billionaire Thor Bjorgolfsson referred to his plan for a super yacht known as Project Mars, as a play on his thunder god name. To clarify: Thor is the hammer-wielding Norse god of thunder. His nearest Roman equivalent is the thunderbolt-wielding Jupiter, rather than Mars, the Roman god of war (“Icelandic tycoon still living the high life in London after the collapse of Icesave”, Business, last week, page 35). Link

Lessons in geography etc.

Craig Silverman — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:00:57 +0000

“Ecuador asks: how much is the rainforest worth?” (News Review, last week) said a new oil field had been found in Yasuni national park “close to the Brazilian border”. Ecuador and Brazil do not share a border. The park borders Peru. Link

Rest is fine

Craig Silverman — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:00:03 +0000

Stories – 15 May 2009 and 8 May 2010 – concerning the expenses and allowances of Shahid Malik when he was an MP incorrectly stated that he had paid a discounted rent on his constituency home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and that his expenses claims were the highest of any MP. Mr Malik was later cleared of any breaches of the ministerial code by Sir Philip Mawer, a former parliamentary commissioner for standards, and his expenses were the 58th highest. Mr Malik has also asked us to point out that he denies saying when asked about his expenses and allowances: “That is my private business.”
Further, he says that he did not say in an article that he would repay council tax that he had claimed; he had already paid the money back before the stories broke. Finally, a Guardian article shortly after the 2010 election stated: “Defeats for Jacqui Smith, Shahid Malik and Ann Keen also had a whiff of the expenses scandal but were hardly unexpected given their vulnerable majorities.” To clarify: Malik, unlike the other two MPs, was not found to be in breach of parliamentary rules on expenses (MP claimed £60,000 for ﬂat but paid peppercorn rent, 15 May 2009, page 5; Shahid Malik stands down as minister as expenses scandal deepens, 15 May 2009, guardian.co.uk; Justice minister steps down over rent allegations, 16 May 2009, page 5; and Duck islands and moats forgotten but Labour pays heavily for sleaze, 8 May 2010, page 11). Link

And:

In a 2009 article on MPs’ expenses, we said “senior Labour sources” had predicted that Shahid Malik MP, who had stepped down as justice minister pending an investigation into his renting a flat in his Dewsbury constituency from a local businessman, would not return to government and that the prime minister, Gordon Brown, had “lost confidence in Malik”. We should record that Mr Malik was cleared of any breaches of the expenses’ code and returned to government under Mr Brown until the 2010 general election (“Artists and activists join in call for electoral reform”, News, 24 May, page 4). Link

Not a drunk, no secret tapes

Craig Silverman — Sun, 29 May 2011 14:25:49 +0000

“Secret tapes, Coulson’s exit and the riddle of the story that won’t go away” (In Focus, 23 January) reported claims from sources that, owing to a “growing drink problem”, former News of the World journalist Ray Chapman “started secretly taping conversations with his colleagues and editors” and that these tapes might assist in confirming allegations of phone hacking at the newspaper. Mr Chapman’s widow has asked us to make clear that Mr Chapman was teetotal for the last 15 years of his life and that she denies the existence of any such tapes. We apologise to Mrs Chapman for any distress caused. Link

Fake spoiler alert

Craig Silverman — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:00:18 +0000

Apologies to those disappointed last week that we had apparently spoiled their TV viewing by claiming that Christine Hamilton would fail to get through to the final of Celebrity Masterchef (“Scene of the Week, New Review). This was a simple misunderstanding. We had no foreknowledge of the programme’s progress and are happy to report that Mrs Hamilton is through to the closing stages. Link

Lessons in geography…

Craig Silverman — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:00:12 +0000

The Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen was listed under the heading “New Scandinavian crime writers” (Books, 18 July) but neither Finland nor Estonia is in Scandinavia. Link

Porn on the brain

Craig Silverman — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:00:33 +0000

Contrary to “There’s no excuse for stumbling across porn now” (Comment, last week), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is not “setting up a porn-only internet domain”. Rather, a private company, ICM Registry, is applying to Icann, a regulatory body, for permission to operate a domain with the .xxx suffix. Further, the piece confused the www prefix and the .xxx suffix. As a proposed top-level domain, .xxx would be a suffix and would not replace the www prefix in url naming conventions. Link

Apology

Craig Silverman — Mon, 03 May 2010 12:00:21 +0000

In “The Stones and the true story of Exile On Main St” (Review, last week), we said Robert Greenfield in his book subtitled “A season in hell with the Rolling Stones” had aired a rumour “which he did not confirm or refute” that Anita Pallenberg had encouraged the teenage daughter of an employee to inject heroin for the first time. We should make it clear that the book discounts the rumour, stating that the employee, who was motivated by a desire to blackmail Pallenberg, did not even have a daughter. We reported that another rumour in the book “has Jagger bedding Pallenberg while Richards has nodded out on heroin”. The book substantiates the rumour of the affair, but does not connect it to Richards’s heroin addiction. We apologise for these errors. Link

Lose a word, lose the meaning

Craig Silverman — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:00:57 +0000

We accidentally misrepresented gambling addiction counsellor Liz Karter last week when we quoted her saying: “I think there is a great demonic force out there leading women quite deliberately into trouble.” A bad telephone line led us to miss a vital negative. She actually said: “I think there isn’t a demonic force. . .” (“Britain’s latest addicts: women who gamble online, at home and in secret”, Focus.) Apologies. Link

Travel (mis)guide

Craig Silverman — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:00:22 +0000

We described “a point on the Ataturk bridge (in Istanbul) where you can have one foot in Europe, the other in Asia. . .”, but the bridge spans the Golden Horn, not the Bosphorous. And we took 1,000 years off Aya Sofya, the Church of the Divine Wisdom, which was built in the 6th, not 16th, century. “A whirlwind for the senses” (Escape, last week). Link

Off the tracks

Craig Silverman — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:00:28 +0000

“Orient Express prepares for its final departure” (News, last week) was illustrated incorrectly with a publicity photograph of the private Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, which, as the story was careful to point out, is unaffected by the scrapping of the Strasbourg-Vienna service. We apologise for the error. Link

Tried in the press

Craig Silverman — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:28:42 +0000

In “Seven days: A good week for. . . Judge Mohammed Ilyas Khan” (25 May 2008), we said that Judge Khan’s cleaner had tried to blackmail him. In fact, she was never convicted of blackmailing Judge Khan. She appealed against her conviction for blackmail (involving a Judge J) and theft (involving Judge Khan). All charges were dropped and therefore she was cleared on both counts. Apologies. Link