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The newspaper goes further to say, "In reporting and editing the Transnet story, some of our established practices were not followed. We would like to reassure our readers that we are committed to improving our systems to validate the information we publish".

Background

South Africa government owned transport authority, Transnet, on 4 September 2008, formally lodged a complaint with the Press Ombudsman challenging The Sunday Times to retract and apologise for a story alleging that the authority had sold part of South Africa's sea to foreigners. Transnet alleges that the story headlined "Transnet sold our sea to foreigners" was "false, misleading, malicious and defamatory lead".

John Dludlu, Transnet spokesperson said, "After the piece's publication, we issued a detailed rebuttal - in the form of a media briefing (Monday, August 25 2008 in Cape Town and Johannesburg), interviews (August 25-26 2008) and presentations to Parliament (August 26-27 2008) - of all the falsehoods published by the paper and, through our lawyers, we asked that the paper publish a retraction and an unreserved apology in its edition of August 31 2008 (the next publishing date after the offending article).

" In addition to these open forums, we made available the two relevant agreements - one signed in 2001 and the sale and purchase agreement entered into in 2006 - to MPs who are members of the Portfolio Committees on Public Enterprises and Environmental Affairs and Tourism."

According to Transnet, the retraction and apology has not been forthcoming.
Continued Dludlu, "Given the scale of the damage caused to Transnet's good name by both the article and, subsequently, the continued delay by the paper in entertaining our demand, we have decided to lay a formal complaint with the Ombudsman over the paper's conduct because it is an effective and expeditious mechanism for the relief sought by Transnet: namely, to restore its good name and reputation, not monetary compensation in the form of a damages award that a Court of Law would make possibly two years from now.

" Transnet is committed to the highest standards of corporate ethics and good governance. It is this commitment and our track record in upholding these standards that was assailed by the Sunday Times.

" To enable this process to proceed, we will not make further comment whilst this is underway," he concluded.

Rashweat Mukundu: Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek
Namibia
Tel: +264 61 232975
Tel: +264 61 248016
rashweat@misa.org , misaalerts@gmail.com

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