A Kaieteur News (KN) reporter on Monday evening pretended that he and his colleague were from Stabroek News (SN) after they had been refused entry to the home of Marcyn King who had been murdered earlier that evening.
The deception was exposed as the KN reporters had arrived after two SN reporters had already been allowed to enter the house.
Following the incident, Stabroek News Editor Anand Persaud wrote to the Editor of Kaieteur News, Adam Harris lodging a complaint. In his letter Persaud said “I have spoken to you in the past about Kaieteur News reporters passing themselves off as Stabroek News reporters. This is most unprofessional, damaging and fraudulent behaviour which I intend to expose…”
Persaud said Harris later contacted him by phone and said he had spoken with the KN reporter who said that he had jokingly said he was from Stabroek News. Persaud said he was flummoxed by this explanation as a cardinal rule underpinning the profession was never to misrepresent oneself. This type of behaviour by the KN reporter damaged the entire profession, he said. Furthermore, Persaud said he couldn’t understand how a KN reporter could turn up at a scene of intense grief and engage in this type of charade and deception. He urged members of the public to insist on seeing some form of identification if they were unsure which media house was seeking to speak to them.
At about 7:30 pm on Monday two reporters from this newspaper as well as personnel from Prime News and Capitol News were allowed into King’s residence. The deceased’s mother Margaret Rawlins was then interviewed by reporters of the three news entities. After the interview another relative was assisting with getting photographs of the deceased when footsteps were heard on the stairs and the KN reporter shouted, “Inside, Good night, Kaieteur News here. “The interviewee then shouted from inside, “I don’t want anything to do with Kaieteur News. I have had my experiences with you all. You write what you want to write. I am not speaking to Kaieteur News”.
Moments after, the same reporter then indicated to the woman that he was from Stabroek News. He said this two times. At this point the woman looked quizzically at the two Stabroek News reporters who were in her home and inquired again if they were indeed from Stabroek News and then promptly replied that she had Stabroek News already.
The reporter then went back down the stairs since the woman maintained her position that she was not talking to the Kaieteur News.
