Jack Lapauve Jr. IMAGE: FB |
COMMENTARY: EMTV’s deputy news editor Jack Lapauve Jr in Port Moresby writes in defence of the newsroom’s decision to walk out in protest over the suspension of head of news and current affairs Sincha Dimara on February 7.
The EMTV News editorial decision to run the two stories [about the court cases involving Australian hotel businessman Jamie Pang] was based on two important points in our line of work:
Impartiality and Objectivity.
Impartiality cannot be achieved by the measure of words in a story, it is achieved by:
- Avoiding bias towards one point of view
- Avoiding omission of relevant facts
- Avoiding misleading emphasis
All of which are stated in the EMTV News and Current Affairs Manual 2019 in section 17.5 under standard operations of the television code.
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By running the stories, the team was accused of bias.