The online news medium, Premium
Times, on Thursday, falsely accused The PUNCH of republishing its version of
the letter that former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote to President Goodluck
Jonathan without attribution.
We strongly repudiate this unfounded
claim and deplore the online news medium’s recourse to hasty generalization in
its bid to claim the moral high ground.
Premium Times was neither the source
of the information used in our story nor the source of the text published.
The online medium would have avoided
an “ethical flaw”, and served its readers well, if it had been careful to
comply with one of journalism’s basic tenets by reaching out to The PUNCH for
its side of the story.
This newspaper would have readily
shared relevant information pertaining to our story, particularly, the fact
that it was obtained from a source in the former President’s office on December
11, 2013 and also provided emails and PDF document containing the 18-page
letter in its original form.
That an online news medium publishes
a document first does not by any means suggest that it is the only medium
(print or online) with the information at the point in time.
Our decision not to state the source
of the story was not for the reason stated by the online medium. Indeed,
Financial Times (UK) also published the story without stating its source, just
like The PUNCH.
PUNCH’s culture of professionalism is
its strongest forte. We provide clear attribution when stories are sourced and
offer an apology when errors are brought to our notice.
Martin Ayankola
Editor, The PUNCH
Tags
Society