Attorney General Levi Peter has called on members of the local media to pay more attention to the authenticity of their story before publishing. He made the statement during his address to parliament last week.
The attorney general reminded media personnel of the impact their stories could have on the country’s image.
“In the recent weeks it has come to my notice that there have been in the media, reports which quite inexplicably or certainly without any reasonable justification that I can see, are passed in aspersions, making allegations about individuals and institutions within our society, which cannot be calculated to give a positive image of our country to the world. We all know that in the world we live now, that what we write in the newspaper, what we say on an internet blog or an internet news site is immediately transmitted around the world. So if we did not know before, we certainly should know now that we need to be circumspect from what it is we are saying. We need to know that what we are saying is factual and I am going to respectfully submit that if we do not know that it is factual, perhaps we should desist from putting it out there until we know the content or the nature of it.”
The AG further stated that it is not appropriate for people to simply say anything and not have the facts to back it up.
The AG was referring to a recent article which was posted on a local news website.