Political advertising: DVDs on the Armenian genocide
February 7th, 2007 by Zsofia
The 2005 French documentary entitled “The Armenian genocide” is making headlines after being distributed as a free gift in this week’s European edition of Time magazine (reaching over half a million readers).
Co-produced by ARTE, the 52 min. film seems to be a well-assembled and convincing historical account of the mass deportation and extermination of Armenians by the Ottoman government between 1915 and 1917. But its latest distribution “deal” might raise a few eyebrows (especially in Turkey).
Time magazine’s decision to promote the documentary was a direct consequence of a rather odd blunder on behalf of the magazine. In its June 6, 2005 issue, Time Europe inserted a Turkish DVD as a paid advertisement, containing a segment on the fate of the Armenians under Ottoman rule.
Armenian groups protested, saying the DVD, financed by the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, was a “deceitful attempt to spread malicious lies and denialist propaganda”. Time’s editors subsequently admitted that the DVD contained a “one-sided view of history that does not meet our standards for fairness and accuracy, and we would not have distributed it had we been aware of its content”.
To correct this error, Time Europe apologized (October 17, 2005) and published a Letter to the Editor by five French organizations sympathetic to the Armenian cause. Back then, it also promised to correct the mistake and - voila - this is being done this week, on page 5 of the magazine.
