Interesting mistakes in the news on Libya

Each week my work group (the Mediterranean Basin team) at the Civil Military Fusion Centre creates a newsletter on the events occurring in Libya. I read about Libya pretty much all day, and have been since 18 March 2011. Anyhow, while crafting my input this week, I re-read this article by Algerian paper Echorouk from 12 June 2011. The article is an English translation of an Arabic article from the same source.

The main point is that an NGO is preparing to take legal action to find out who is responsible for for allowing boatloads of migrants fleeing North Africa to drift at sea in the Mediterranean without providing assistance. The original article asks, is it NATO member countries, the EU, Frontex, member states of Operation Unified Protector in Libya? The interesting part is not so much the idea behind the article, but rather that the English language version, which I read first, identifies the NGO as 'GISI.'

A search for more information yielded no further information, so I went searching for the original article, always relishing any opportunity that allows me to use Arabic for work purposes. The original article, in Arabic, identified the organization as "جيستي". Ah ha! The organization is not GISI but rather GISTI, or Groupe d'Information et de Soutien des Immigrés. Their original article announcing the plan to bring charges against NATO, the EU and Frontex is here.

This find is a treasure to me for a couple of reasons. First, I got to use both Arabic and French to unravel the mystery. Second, I discovered some misinformation in the media. Though this isn't the first time (sometime in April I read a Bloomberg article about Nigerien migrants fleeing to Libya instead of from), it is thrilling each time to acquire these nuggets of truth.

UPDATE! Here where this article discusses the island of Mauritania, could the author mean Mauritius? And here the hilarity continues with discussion of the JUNGLES OF MAURITANIA.