The Bhutanese Leading the way.
There has been some criticism of the news article titled, “MoE fires ‘PDP’ Principal and lets the ‘DPT’ one of the hook,” published on 16 August, 2012. The criticism from some of our readers is that this article did not get the version of the Ministry of Education, the other principal and the minister himself.
This according to some of our readers is a violation of The Bhutanese’s editorial policy number 13 which says, “While writing an article which involves conflict between two people or organizations, we will make sure that the voices of both parties are heard, unless one party disagrees to cooperate.”
While this paper accepts that there is some relevance in the criticism, the circumstances and context needs to be explained.
1. The article does have the view of the MoE through its Chief Human Resource Officer Sonam Wangyel who was quoted in the article.
2. The article also says, “Lyonpo Thakur Singh Powdyel was out of the country when The Bhutanese tried to contact. The paper however has asked for an appointment when Lyonpo is back.”
3. The reporter tried to get in touch with the Education Secretary after failing to meet Lyonpo but the secretary was in a function at the India House and declined to comment on the Phone. She asked the reporter to meet her in her office in person. As the view of the HRO of MoE was already there and waiting for the secretary’s comments would mean missing the deadline the reporter decided to get the Secretary’s views for the next issue along with the Minister presenting the MoE’s full views. This is a normal practice in many newspapers.
4. The reporter was working on the story for the immediate next issue of 18th August 2012 when at the last moment he fell ill and so the MoE’s version had to be postponed for the 22nd August issue.
5. In the meantime before The Bhutanese could carry the MoE’s views a private newspaper, Bhutan Today carried the MoE’s one sided and factually incorrect presumptions against this paper including questions on the ‘motive’ of the story without contacting the paper or the main accuser Kinley Tenzin.
6. All the major accusations are backed up by actual documents for example, the signed complaint by 11 teachers against the former Dorokha principal.
Editor
The Bhutanese
It is good to hear your explanation here but it looks lame. My point is when you have patience to dig out the story, u must write it completely. It is of less important to explain abut reporter’s health cos it matters what u say to the society. hope u learnt good lesson abut the disadvantages of reporting one-sided story. please dnt fabricate n manipulate the story. media is not the one to pass judgement. yours is to report the truth…
Whatever said and done, readers should not be left in suspense. Compile detail story in one edition to give clear picture to your readers.Wait for all concerned people to comment. The media house cannot afford to present the story like Hindi television serials. To be continued in next episode……….or bla bla…
Who sets the deadline for your news anyways? Definitely, not the readers. So please don’t be hurry. Also how can your works be so special if you follow practices of other newspapers. “The Bhutanese” is considered as a very innovative paper, so please do not let your drawbacks grow with minor lapses, it may cost you heavily later. We eagerly wait for your paper and ask ourselves, what would be next. So do not let our expectations fail and do not get carried away by winds. Good luck and Tashi Delek.
well said Dungpa, i fully agree and am with you
thebhutanese is trying to rip apart the peaceful bhutanese society
Every society needs a mirror to examine its conscience, this newspaper has been a wake up call to our self proclaimed candy floss view as the Last Shangrila, which we are a long way away from achieving. While we might decide to pinch our noses and ignore the stench coming out of all the injustice happening in and around us, that doesn’t mean the smell goes away.
Inaction and Indifference is the last thing we need as a young precarious democracy.
you mean to say that we bhutanese should not have right to know what is going in our country, please say thanks to this “The Bhutanese” newspaper through which we learn a lot. in simple term we are now aware. bottom line is that, i really appreciate the work done by those hard working reporters. keep working like this and make our bhutanese citizen informed. thank you the Bhutanese.
deepdive seems to be someone very inciting and destructive. CAREFUL!
So far thebhutanese is the only paper that does some journalistic writings to my mind.
Has this paper tried to contact the DPT principal or not to get his views, haha reporter fell ill.
so u called one sided story full of personalized attacks a “journalistic writing”?
how come bbs and kuensel have ALWAYS done one sided stories and never been criticized as much?
I guess this particular story drew more attention because of its mention of dpt in it.
Keep up the good work!
In journalism, if the concerned officials are not available, when you tried contacting them, then it is that official’s fault. A journalist should not and cannot wait if their paper goes out tomorrow or whenever. The papers have the duty to inform the nation. The people can’t wait for the official right moment to respond…that would be a bureaucracy !!!
These officials who are barking now don’t know the principles of Journalism.
Your paper has still been fair – given the viewpoint of the CHRO, if he could not explain adequately, it is their fault, not of the Bhutanese.
which story of kuensel and BBS was one sided?
So here we know the true color of The Bhutanese. Literally impatient if it is the case of DPT and otherwise incase of PDP.
LOL
nail that so called “BHUTAN TODAY” news paper journalist.
Why to discuss the issue of kinley tenzin again and again?? You don’t have to read newspaper to find whether kinley tenzin is guilty or not. anyone can simply ask the people of samtse and his mate. He was busy selling WFP tin fish to shopkeeper at samtse during his tenure as a Principal. Everyone at Samtse will know about him. Just ask how corrupt he was….
Again accusation!” a private newspaper, Bhutan Today carried the MoE’s one sided and factually incorrect assumptions against this paper including questions on the motive of the story”. Great inborn caliber!!!!!
Birla, why do you want to embarrass this paper any more.
Why do you always try to get your stories done on the last hour. It often happens that reporters contact you and they immediately require the answers on the spot. I don’t know how standard reporting procedure works but I feel before you report on anything and if it requires people’s comments/views..you also have the responsibility to give the people in question…enough time to respond…Hence misquotes and misunderstandings are cleared before you actually inform your readership. This would also help build your paper’s credibility beyond doubt.