Chomsky's interviewer

I wrote at length towards the end of last year on The Guardian's interview with Noam Chomsky on his being voted Top Public Intellectual by readers of Prospect, and the newspaper's repudiation of the interview after receiving a complaint by Chomsky. Chomsky's complaints were various, but the principal one concerned the treatment of his views on Srebrenica. I can't link to the interview because, extraordinarily, it was withdrawn from The Guardian's site. But I consider the "correction" issued by the newspaper's Readers' Editor, Ian Mayes, was manifestly incorrect and did a serious injustice to the Guardian writer who conducted the interview, Emma Brockes.

As I explained here in December, I and two other writers with experience of Chomsky's methods and arguments, David Aaronovitch of The Times and Francis Wheen of Private Eye, sent a very long letter to Mayes setting out exhaustively why Chomsky's complaint should have been rejected, and why the "correction" should itself be withdrawn. As yet, we have not made our letter public, because we are still going through the newspaper's appeals procedure. It is taking some time, because Mayes acknowledged that, as our complaint was about him, he could hardly sit in judgement upon it, and that an external ombudsman would need to be appointed if we were to pursue our complaint. (The position is currently vacant.) We have asked that this be done, and I shall report on developments.

In the meantime, I'm delighted to report that Emma Brockes has been shortlisted for Interviewer of the Year in the British Press Awards, announced today.