The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Friday reacted for the first time on controversy over The Wire‘s recent reporting on Meta, which the platform had to subsequently take down over concerns of allegedly wrong inputs from sources and forged documents used as evidence. The top journalists’ body advised to resist the “temptation of moving fast on sensitive stories”.
The guild also withdrew references regarding harassment of women journalists it made after The Wire’s story on Tek Fog app. “The Editors Guild of India had issued a statement on January 11, 2022 expressing deep concern about the online harassment and targeting of women journalists,” the EGI said.
“Amongst other instances, the statement had also referred to a series of reports carried by the Wire on an app called the Tek Fog. Since the Wire has removed those stories as part of their internal review following serious questions on the veracity of their reporting, the Guild withdraws the references made to all those reports,” it further said.
Referring to the recent fiasco between The Wire and Meta, the guild said: “The Guild is also disturbed by the recent turn of events with respect to the reports published by the Wire on Meta. The Guild is conscious of and emphasizes the need for extra care in investigative journalism, and urges newsrooms to resist the temptation of moving fast on sensitive stories, circumventing due journalistic norms and checks.”
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