Two days ago you guys read the 18-page stinker
Obasanjo wrote to President Jonathan. Well, here's the thing, online news
site Premium Times published the letter first and
claimed to have exclusive rights to it. They even
watermarked each page of the letter. Punch and
other media houses later wrote their own reports and
published unwatermarked version of the letter
Premium Times is now accusing Punch and all the
other media houses of plagiarism, claiming they stole
their exclusive and refused to acknowledge them.
The Editor-in Chief of the Premium Times, Dapo
Olorunyomi, said
"Majority of the papers published the complete
text of the letter which was first revealed to the
world by this newspaper, and made available via
our website. There were also cases of shameless
lifting of the original story published by this
medium. I am weirdly tickled at the absence of
humility in competitors who sought to ignore
accepting that they got the material from us and
ended up failing to offer their readers the source
of the material altogether."
Punch has reacted to the allegations, insisting
Premium Times was not the source of their report.
See their statement after the cut...
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
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