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Some answers are needed here
Dear Editor,
On Wednesday 24 October, Kaieteur News carried an article by Kiana Wilburg titled “Audit Report reveals over 1909 breaches of Forestry Regulations in three years”. That articles ends with a link to the Forestry Commission Report.
On Sunday 28 October there is a reply from Ms Joycelyn Dow, the Chairman of the Guyana Forestry Commission, in which she is critical of Ms Wilburg’s article. Ms Dow argues that the information in Ms Wilburg’s article, while it is taken from the Forestry Commission Report, is used out of context.
In her response Ms Dow states that “of the 1900 infractions, 1419 were the result of the late submission of permits (the regulations require that permits be submitted within 24hrs of delivery of forest produce), which the GFC attributes, in the main, to the poor conditions of interior roads.
Now, Mr Editor, at the end of Ms Dow’s letter there is an Editor’s note: “Our reporter Ms Wilburg has stated that the information she used was not taken from GFC’s website, and there was “no deliberate attempt” on her parents to “skew the facts”.
Mr Editor, how do you then explain the fact that the Wednesday article is headed by a chart, which is an exact replica of a chart on page 24 of the Forestry Commission Report? A Report for which, note, the link is provided at the end of the article, with the instruction: “See link for full report”.
I accept that Ms Wilburg may not have set out to “skew the facts”. But if Ms Dow’s statement that the majority (1419 out of a total 1900) of the infractions were late submission of permits due to poor overland communications is true, then, whether she intended to or not, she did “skew” the facts.
So, either she unintentionally skewed the facts or Ms Dow is lying – in which case I would expect a good reporter to continue to delve into the facts.
But here’s my problem with all of this. If Ms Wilburg’s information was NOT taken from the GFC Report, as the Editor’s Note says she states, where did she get it from? If someone provided her with the chart at the beginning of the article did she not inquire where it came from? (Answer – the GFC Report).
If she did not include that chart when she wrote the article, who put it there? You, Mr Editor? And given that there is a link to the GCF Report at the end of the article, did neither she nor anyone else take the time to read at least the summary of the report? Or to contact someone on the Commission to discuss the information she had received?
Pat Robinson Commissiong
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