FACT OR SQUEAKTGATE JOURNALISM?

** Transcript of a letter to the editor hand delivered to The Daily Examiner on 19 June 2009.

Sir,

FACT OR SQUEAKTGATE JOURNALISM?

Your arrogant response to 22 year old Maree Jay's letter "Ngaru Village" 18-6-09 claiming that your "story was based on fact" is as fictional as your sensationalistic journalism unable to distinguish between fact, opinion or hearsay in blind pursuit of profit.

An unidentified pilot who claimed to be able to see through the roofs of most of the homes is not fact but hearsay.

A photograph of a disused house cited for demolition is nothing more than a disused house cited for demolition.

Claims made by a former unidentified ambulance driver is not fact but hearsay.

Your claim of unidentified "young people running around the streets staging break and enters and smashing property --- on a daily basis" is not fact but your opinion that goes very close to defamation.
It does not appear to be corroborated by Chief Inspector Spooner nor does it link the residents of Ngaru Village with such alleged crimes.

And the report that a Queensland teenager has been charged with 11 offences including break and enter is not evidence that the elders of Ngaru Village are involved in such crimes.

"Where do these youths come from and who is guiding then through life----" is not a fact but a question that should have been answered by you as the investigative journalist.

Having read your squeakygate news report the only crime the elders of Ngaru Village seem to have committed is the crime of being poor.

Your uncorroborated sensationalism targeting the elders of Ngaru Village appears to be designed to sell newspapers and make a profit for yourself rather than help the elders of Ngaru Village.
In doing so you have made yourself vulnerable to a claim of defamation.

As the editor of the only daily news publication in the Clarence Valley, surely you have an obligation to provide a responsible news serve, accurate, impartial and with the utmost integrity.

RAY HUNT
Yamba



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