This is a statement from the editor.
The publication of this article on Trinity TV has drawn a mixed response. As editor it is my role to decide what goes to print and what does not. I made the decision to print this article and I stand by it. In the interests of maintaining a dialogue with those who took issue with its publication I will outline why this is the case.
TN makes its decisions to publish articles based on whether the information included is in the public interest. In this instance the allegations made against the former secretary of Trinity TV were serious. As the article made clear this was particularly of public interest because the individual also held a position as a representative of Trinity students – in addition to a number of other significant positions we decided not to list because of the potential negative effects on other organisations.
I can attest to the fact that the article was well-researched. Every interested party was interviewed on-the-record at length. All of those interviews were conducted in the same tone of seriousness, as we feel confident interviewees will attest to. The article followed standard practice in establishing the agreed-upon facts of the case before accurately representing the statements given to this paper by those interviewees.
We decided not to name the individual involved because of potential impacts on future employment. However, because we felt that it was in the public interest that it be possible to discover who the allegations were being made against, we referenced his representative position. This, we felt, was a fair compromise.
The seriousness of this situation was made clear to us by those we spoke to in Trinity TV. The situation had deteriorated to the degree that those involved in the committee were not sure that the society was going to be able to continue next year. Their allegations, as quoted in the article, were that this was because of individual acts of dishonesty.
In direct response to a claim made by an individual on the Facebook thread, we did not delete comments.
Trinity News 2012/’13 has an independent Public Editor, who receives complaints about the articles we publish. She can be contacted at [email protected].
– Rónán Burtenshaw, Editor.
(Clarification: our Public Editor’s email account was not working from the time of publication until 22:50 due to technical issues. We have rectified this and ask that those who have submitted emails please RESEND them to this address. Thank you.)
