The National Media Commission (NMC) has asked the Ghanaian Times to render unqualified apology to Dr. F. Bart-Plange, Principal Medical Officer of the La Polyclinic for publishing a story against her.
A statement by the commission on Monday said the story was in respect of allegations that the polyclinic had lost more than 30 millions cedis due to improper awards of contracts for the clinic’s projects.
The story captioned “300 Million Cedis Deal at La Polyclinic” and published on Tuesday, January 30, 2001 cited Dr. Bart-Plange at the centre of the allegations.
“The headline was suggestive of wrongdoing whereas there were only allegations made against Bart-Plange”, the statement said adding that where allegations are made, they should not be put out as statements of fact.
The statement said the reporter assigned to investigate the allegations failed to honour an agreed interview with Dr. Bart-Plange to address the allegations.
It said although Mr. Tom Dorkenoo, Editor of the Ghanaian Times acted correctly by sending a reporter to investigate, he must take ultimate responsibility for the story.
The NMC directed the Paper to publish the statement in full in one of its editions and expressed its appreciation to both parties for their utmost co-operation.
Source: GhanaWeb
