Paper concedes inaccuracy of referring to all people of former USSR as 'Russians' (11/13/05)

Paper concedes inaccuracy of referring to all people of former USSR as 'Russians'

Ontario Press Council

TORONTO - The Globe and Mail, responding to a complaint before the Ontario Press Council, has conceded that referring to the people of the former Soviet Union simply as Russians is an inaccuracy.

Myroslaw Prytulak of Windsor, Ontario, complained that a Moscow story published on May 10 erred in saying 27 million or 28 million Russians died during the second world war. He said he was "unable to unravel the motives behind the Globe's decision to airbrush the enormous losses by other East European countries, especially since their losses were much greater than those of Russia."

Mr. Prytulak maintained that Russia's losses were 5.8 million, including 1.8 million military and 4 million civilians, and that, by way of comparison, Ukraine's losses were 8 million, including 2.5 million military and 5.5 million civilians.

The highest estimate of Soviet (not just Russian) losses that he found was on the website of the Guinness World Records, which said "The Soviet Union lost an estimate 26.6 million of its citizens."

The Globe said that before the war the terms "Soviet citizens" and "Russians" were synonymous in everyday usage and that the reporter probably saw them as interchangeable. "It was an imprecise description but the writer was not trying to mislead or misinform."

Offering to publish a correction now, the newspaper's representative at the Ontario Press Council hearing said he regretted that it wasn't corrected at the time. "Our reporter slipped and we didn't correct him."

He added that he resented the suggestion that The Globe and Mail had attempted to "discredit and intimidate" Mr. Prytulak, that it "arrogantly refused to redress" the dispute without involving the Ontario Press Council, and that it was trying to "airbrush" the enormous losses of other Eastern European nations.

He said the newspaper receives 300 credible letters every day and cannot reply to every one of the 288 it doesn't publish.

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Following is the draft of the adjudication.

Myroslaw Prytulak of Windsor complained that a Globe and Mail article from Moscow published May 10 erred in stating that 27 or 28 million Russians died during the second world war when, in fact, the figure included millions of non-Russian citizens of the Soviet Union.

The newspaper said that before the war the terms "Soviet citizens" and "Russians" were considered synonymous in everyday usage and that the reporter saw the terms as interchangeable. But it ultimately conceded that the reference was inaccurate and, after expressing regret that it wasn't corrected at the time, offered to print a correction now.

The Ontario Press Council commends the newspaper for its offer but, in upholding the complaint, expresses its regret that the inaccuracy was not corrected when first brought to its attention.

At the same time, it rejects the charge that the newspaper attempted to "airbrush" the enormous losses suffered by other Eastern European countries and sought to "discredit and intimidate" the complainant.

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News about the Ontario Press Council's finding was released by the council on November 3.

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