" There is a lot of irresponsible journalism going around these days connected with alarmist stories on ISIL."

"What strikes me is that right under the heading is a picture of an eBay auction "Ancient coin", and the caption reads apparently unambiguously: "Stolen coins are among the plundered artefacts going on the open market". After a bit of a search, one may follow the clues back to the dealer whose auction has been highlighted."

"If I were a dealer whose name figured in such a context, I'd probably be having a word with my lawyer tomorrow. Both newspapers have enough money to make a lawsuit with them worthwhile. A doddle - on condition that the dealer can come up with documentation that will stand up in court as proof that the claim is false. Can he? We will see what their next move is. This is an ACCG dealer..."

"Despite the headline, the Times has not presented any evidence of Islamic State-looted antiquities on eBay."

"Unfortunate sub-editing is always a risk. Hugh Tomlinson has suffered it before, but this time it’s worse – especially because the prominence of his article’s recyclers has spread the headline far and wide. Tomlinson is sensible and blunt about sensationalist statements that concern the Islamic State, so I’m confident that he was (literally) thousands of miles away from the Times’ headline. He was kind enough to discuss the article the morning after it was published, so I know a bit about its background, but the rest is my comment.

"It was written as a review of the problem of antiquities trafficking and illicit sale, which has been worsened by the rise of the Islamic State. However, it repeatedly explained the functioning of the trade by reviewing how “the Islamists”, “the jihadists”, “Isis” did things. It did not explicitly identify any non-jihadist paramilitary looters and traffickers."

"Myriads of objects of ‘murky’ legality are available via eBay and other online auctioneers and traders. It is inevitable that some antiquities looted, trafficked, taxed or otherwise racketeered by the Islamic State – as well as by other jihadist militias, the Free Syrian Army, other rebel factions, the Assad regime, even foreign forces – will turn up on eBay."

"When Morag Kersel saw the Daily Mail’s churned version of the Times’ original story, she wondered ‘how the author [had made] the link between ISIS, eBay and these particular coins’. That may have been because the Mail’s author, Jack Crone, did not copy-and-paste Erin Thompson’s cautious observation to Hugh Tomlinson that it was ‘extremely difficult to tell if individual items were looted recently, [were looted] long ago or come from a legitimate source’."

"The Times illustrated its piece with an image that was captioned, ‘Stolen coins are among the plundered artefacts going on the open market’. It was not a stock image of a coin. It was an image of a specific coin that was on the open market – a coin from Apamea on eBay, which was on offer at a reduced price (down from $106.40 to $85.12)."

"While readers might see “small coins such as these” as an illustration of a kind of object and its ease of transport, it is very difficult to see “historical artefacts believed to have been looted by ISIS, such as this coin” as anything other than a statement that this coin is believed to have been looted by ISIS."

"I’m not alone in thinking that these reports could leave the publishers at risk of a libel claim, as long as ‘the dealer can come up with documentation that will stand up in court as proof that the claim is false’. Is that the only way that publishers will be convinced to ensure more responsible reporting?"