AP criticized for reference to Amal Clooney as 'actor's wife'

In a recent tweet that quickly became controversial, the Associated Press (AP) referred to well-known human rights lawyer Amal Clooney as the "actor's wife", associating her with husband and Hollywood actor George Clooney.

Amal Clooney, actor's wife, representing Al-Jazeera journalist accused in Egypt of ties to extremists http://t.co/i6nQg0xPg3
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 29, 2015

Clooney has had a long and successful career in international, human rights and criminal law. Her latest work has been in representing Canadian Al-Jazeera journalist Mohammed Fahmy who, along with his two colleagues, has been found guilty of broadcasting false news and working without a press license.

According to a report written by Business Times, Clooney has defended high profile clients, such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Libya’s Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of the former Libyan president, Muammar Qaddafi.

In April 2015, Clooney announced that she would represent former president of the Maldives, Mohammed Nashed, during his ongoing arbitrary detention.

AP's Twitter account was bombarded by users condemning the news agency for its comment. They criticized AP for being stuck in the 1950s, when a woman's value was based on who their husbands were.

"Seriously, Amal is just an accessory to her husband's life, not a successful lawyer in her own right,” one Twitter user said.

Another user sarcastically mentioned that the tweet was no big deal. After all, when Amal is not being George Clooney's wife, it's not as though she's a high profile human rights lawyer or anything.

A professor from The School of Information and Library Science also weighed in on the topic.

!!! Fixed it for you @AP. Let me know if you need an introduction to the 21st century. https://t.co/Zj5K0ocvto pic.twitter.com/tgI27xGWhg
— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) August 29, 2015

After receiving so many negative responses from Twitter users, AP corrected the name, referring to Clooney as the "human rights lawyer". The correction was noted by Twitter users, one of whom said "Thanks for checking the gender bias qualifier at the door".

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney criticizes prison terms handed down to three Al-Jazeera English journalists http://t.co/66vCWMt1Gb
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 29, 2015