Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

I was duped into writing Asma al-Assad profile, says Vogue writer Joan Juliet Buck

 

Guy Adams
Tuesday 31 July 2012 12:09 BST
Comments
A Vogue journalist regrets writing a piece about Syria’s first lady Asma al-Assad and calls her a 'murderer'
A Vogue journalist regrets writing a piece about Syria’s first lady Asma al-Assad and calls her a 'murderer' (AFP)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The writer of a flattering Vogue profile of Syria's first lady, Asma al-Assad, has published an extraordinary mea culpa detailing how the article came to be written. Joan Juliet Buck, whose article, "A Rose in the Desert", appeared in March last year, admits she "should have said no" to the commission.

She claims that when she flew to Damascus to interview Assad, "I didn't know I was going to meet a murderer". Both she and the fashion magazine faced huge criticism for publishing the article – which called British-born Mrs Assad, pictured, "glamorous, young, and very chic" – at the height of the Arab Spring, when Syria's human rights abuses were already causing international outrage.

Buck claims, however, that media handlers from the London PR agency Brown Lloyd James prevented her from carrying out proper research. She therefore had no way of knowing that Syria's "meek" and "computer-loving" dictator was the sort of ruler who would "kill more of his own people than his father had and torture tens of thousands more, many of them children". She duly turned in a rose-tinted article that sparked viral outrage and was deleted from Vogue's website in May last year.

In December, Buck was fired as one of Vogue's contributing editors, leaving her free to discuss the controversy. Her account of how the profile of Mrs Assad came about was printed by Newsweek yesterday. Among other things, it alleges that the Syrian government hacked into her laptop and issued her with a tapped mobile phone during her time in Damascus.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in