Sir, - A headline in The Irish Times (July 27th) states as fact, in relation to Algeria: "Twenty people massacred by Muslim rebels". The accompanying article, however, relies entirely on government sources for information on the reported killings. The same government has what is possibly the worst human rights record of any in the entire world. Given that The Irish Times has been prominent in exposing this record, it is greatly disappointing that your sub-editors should treat such compromised sources so uncritically as to produce this headline.
The same article also suggests at one point that the visit of a UN fact-finding team amounts to a major concession by the Algerian government. But, as can be gleaned from elsewhere in the article, this is not the case. The UN team's powers fall hopelessly short of the independent international investigation that is needed and which the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee had the decency to call for last April. The international community must continue to press for such an investigation. Ireland can play its part by co-sponsoring a motion to this end at the forthcoming UN General Assembly. For their part, journalists, including sub-editors, can treat with appropriate scepticism the pronouncements of a regime whose contempt for human rights has been well documented. - Yours, etc, Conor O Brian,
Sraid Ui Shuileabhain, Baile Atha Cliath 7.