stinker Obasanjo wrote to President Jonathan
(In case you missed it, enjoy). 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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