EDITORIAL

Clarifications and corrections heal - confrontations don’t

Monday,  January 9, 2006

From time to time, Cayman Net News receives reports from individuals that they were misrepresented in these pages. In the majority of such cases, the complaints are made politely, a correction is made and the matter dropped.

Occasionally, however, these complaints are accompanied by impossible demands and unnecessary threats, even on occasion that of litigation.

We would like to make it clear that in interviews with members of the public and with Government officials, the reporters at Net News make every effort to present to the readers an accurate account of what was said and interviewees and those making contributing comments to articles are quoted as exactly as possible, allowing for grammar and plain English.

However, as with every newspaper in the world, there are times when reporters do not hear correctly or may even misinterpret the spoken word, and more importantly at times staff writers are misinformed by the people to whom they speak

There are also occasions when the interviewees, seeing their words in print, feel that what was said does not reflect the point they were trying to make. 

Occasionally when this happens, the reporter is blamed, though the words were transcribed accurately. This happens too when those quoted discover after the event that their superiors were less than pleased with their comments in the public domain and as they try to distance themselves from their remarks – more often than not the reporter is again accused of misrepresentation or misquoting. It is, as many journalists will testify, an occupational hazard that goes with the territory.

This publication, however, also maintains the policy, wherever possible, to give the right of reply to individuals, Government departments, and the Administration itself, if they are criticized in one of our articles.

However, it is not possible, given the time constraints of producing a daily newspaper, to contact every person referenced in our articles, especially when they are referred to by seemingly credible sources and the allusion is positive.

We at Net News hope that all readers who are truly interested in having a free and uncensored press will understand that human errors do sometimes occur, and at such times we will make every effort to print a correction, whether the error was ours or not.

We believe that Freedom of the Press is an essential factor in the ongoing development of this country, and will continue to interview a wide cross-section of our community in an effort to present to our readers the political, social, and environmental progress of these Islands.

We will also continue to endeavour that everything we report is accurate and to ensure as many people as possible with an interest in a given issue are contacted before we go to press.

All newspapers in the Free World, including large established papers like the New York Times and the British Daily Telegraph, have occasion to print corrections. 

We hope our readers will understand that neither we nor the people we interview are perfect. We will continue in our efforts to accurately report not only the news, but also the opinions of people we feel have a voice that needs to be heard.

Despite our best efforts, occasionally human error does occur and while this can be irritating, the alternative to a free press is a fettered media that is not only less informative but also far less useful to society.

We would like to thank those readers who appreciate this fact, and for supporting our determination to encourage Freedom of the Press, not just in our publication, but in every newspaper in these Islands.

We invite everyone to bring to our attention any errors in this newspaper, but would like to emphasize that a non-confrontational approach will receive, as much attention as threats, and it is more conducive to maintaining and developing Free Speech in the Cayman Islands as a whole.

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