In covering Wednesday's terror attack in Jerusalem the Reuters news agency was loath to declare a Palestinian terrorist group was behind the bombing.

"Police said it was a 'terrorist attack' – Israel's term for a Palestinian strike," Reuters reported Wednesday. Many foreign media outlets based their reports on Reuters which described the incident as a "Palestinian strike."

Among them was Sky News, which later corrected its report, as well as Yahoo News and Swiss Info. CNN was also careful not to place responsibility for the attack on the Palestinians. A report about Israel's complaint to the Security Council following the attack stated that Israel had described the explosion as a terror attack.





Reuters' report of Wednesday attack

Earlier this month, Israel demanded an apology from CNN over its coverage of the terrorist attack in Itamar claiming it was "tendentious and deceptive." A CNN website report avoided describing the event as a terror attack, noting that the Israel Defense Forces consider it an act of terrorism.

Reuters told Ynet in response: "It is not up to Reuters to say who carried out an attack. We always need to quote the authorities, such as the police. On Wednesday, Israeli police used the Hebrew word "peegooa", without specifically mentioning the Palestinians - but in the local context it is clear that this is who they were referring to. We spelt that out to an international audience to clarify precisely who was being blamed.

"We were certainly not trying to give a judgment value. We were simply seeking to present the facts, with all the correct attribution.

"We have used the same approach for years. This is not a policy we apply only to the Middle East conflict. It is a policy which we use across the globe in all situations."