British checking website faux pas

THE BRITISH Bases were yesterday investigating complaints that the British Ministry of Defence website had referred to Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash as “President of the Cyprus Republic” and presented former president Glafcos Clerides as “leader of the Greek Cypriot community”.

According to reports on Antenna television and To Tharros newspaper, the British army website, http://www.army.mod.uk, had mistakenly called Denktash the President of Cyprus and Clerides the Greek Cypriot leader.

British Bases spokesman Tony Brumwell said: “We are currently looking into the reports but cannot find any error. Of course if we find such a mistake we will put it right.”
If the mistake were a misleading one, an apology would be issued, he said, adding whatever mistake had come from London where the website was dealt with.

British High Commission acting spokeswoman Jill Morris confirmed the Cypriot Foreign Ministry had contacted them concerning the news reports and asked them to look into the affair. It was not, however, a formal protest, she said.

“We were asked if we were aware of the mistake and we explained we were not and would be looking into immediately,” said Morris, adding the Foreign Ministry had realised that if a mistake had been made it was due to a clerical error.

Although nobody had given them an exact link to the alleged mistake, Morris said the High Commission and British Bases were co-operating to get to the bottom of the reports.
No one was yesterday available for comment at the Foreign Ministry.

The Cyprus Mail was unable to find the reference on the MoD website yesterday.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.