Reporter Apologizes for Suggesting Israel Bribed Bulgaria on Bomb Probe

Image by haaretz

By JTA February 6, 2013

A correspondent for the Financial Times apologized for suggesting that Israel may have bribed Bulgaria to frame Hezbollah.

“Sincere apologies and regret for ill-conceived tweet yesterday about Israel and Bulgaria,” Borzou Daragahi, the London-based newspaper’s Middle East and North Africa correspondent, wrote Wednesday on Twitter.

The previous day Daragahi had tweeted, “I don’t doubt Hezbollah/Iran could be behind Bulgaria bombing, but also think Israel could pay Sofia to say anything.” He included a URL of a Reuters article quoting Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov as blaming two Hezbollah operatives for the July 18 bus bombing in Burgas in which six people were killed, including five Israeli tourists.

“We have well-grounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah,” Tsvetanov said.

Daragahi’s apology came after a harsh statement concerning his comment by HonestReporting, an Israel-based media watchdog group.

“It is disgraceful for someone who calls himself a journalist to deal in second-rate conspiracy mongering,” HonestReporting CEO Joe Hyams said in a statement published on the organization’s website.

Founded in 1888, the Financial Times has a combined print and online average daily readership of 2.1 million worldwide, according to its website.

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