Opposition United Democratic Party has expressed concerned over a published articles on party leader Ousainou Darboe, stressing that the articles have generated negative reviews directed at the leader.
Below is the full statement made available by the UDP.
“The UDP notes with concern the surge in articles published as news pieces which misrepresent material facts and attributing it to the party or personalities within the party.
“Our attention is particularly drawn to The Fatu Network for two recent articles that are potentially libellous as they attribute to the party leader statements that can be damaging to his name and reputation as well as the party’s.
“One was where the editor said ‘Darboe suggests he might have regretted changing Barrow for Jammeh’ and also that ‘Darboe glorified Jammeh’s leadership’ both these headlines were misleading and false.
“We are aware that opinion pieces express views of the author, which usually comes with a disclaimer. Opinions are different from articles presented as news by a registered entity that promises and is trained to exercise due diligence and report facts.
“This has not been the case in the two headlines captioned above. The party and Secretary general calls on the GPU and Management of the newspapers to identify opinion pieces as such and engage members and media houses to present facts as news because information is what the citizenry use to make informed decisions, if such information is inaccurate or defamatory, it can be injurious to the subject and UDP will not take such attempts lightly.
“The fourth estate is crucial in helping citizens base their decisions on accurate information and where that is lacking the status quo of misinformation and sensationalism remains.”
