Canada - Newspaper Apologizes For Anti-Iran Report

Ottawa, Canada - The Canadian National Post newspaper apologized for an article that said Iran planned to force Jews and other religious minorities to wear distinctive clothing to distinguish themselves from Muslims.

The National Post ran the piece on its front page Friday along with a large photo from 1944 that showed a Hungarian couple wearing the yellow stars that the Nazis forced Jews to sew to their clothing. The story, which included tough anti-Iran comments, was picked up widely by Web sites and by other media.

But the National Post, a longtime critic of Tehran, admitted it had not checked the piece thoroughly enough before running it. "It is now clear the story is not true," Douglas Kelly, the National Post's editor in chief, wrote in a long editorial on Page 2. "We apologize for the mistake and for the consternation it has caused not just National Post readers, but the broader public who read the story."

U/D: 05/25/06
Canada's ambassador to Iran was summoned to the Foreign Ministry of Iran in apparent diplomatic fallout from remarks by Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper after a the Canadian newspaper report suggested religious minorities in Iran would be forced to wear badges.