REPORTER SAYS SHE DID NOT WRITE ARTICLE ABOUT CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Dale Gavlak, the longtime Middle East AP freelance writer whose byline appeared on an article claiming that Syrian rebels had accidentally fired the chemical weapons that killed some of their own, said on Sunday that she did not write the report and that she had been seeking to have her name removed from it. The report was originally published by Mint Press News, a two-year-old news site, with Gavlak credited as the writer, along with Yahya Ababneh, a Jordanian journalist. It was picked up by dozens of newspapers, TV news programs and websites. On Saturday, Gavlak contacted McClatchy News, maintaining that Mint Press “incorrectly used my byline” and that it “should not be given credence based on my journalistic reputation.” Mint Press founder Mnar Muhawesh later insisted that Gavlak had issued her denial under “tremendous pressure” but stood by the story. “We are unwilling to succumb to those pressures,” he said, adding that “removing her name from the story would not be honest journalism.”