Inquirer released statement for netizens recently slammed them for allegedly posting fake news as to situation of Marawi after the incident.
INQUIRER – The Inquirer finally released a statement regarding their posted fake news about the situation of Marawi City after the attack of the Maute Group.
Based on the previous report, the people of the social media community took notice that the photo posted by the Inquirer on their news as to how the Marawi looked like after the attack of the rebel group was not authentic.
Netizens were claiming that the photo is taken during the blast in Cotabato City for the last 4 years and with these they got furious saying that the Inquirer ‘did it again’.
And so, because of the controversy, the PDI issued their statement through their Facebook page stretching out their apologies for their mistake to the people.
The statement of the PDI says which is based on their post:
INQUIRER STATEMENT ON ERRONEOUS PHOTOS
At around 11 am today, May 24, the Inquirer posted on its Facebook page five photos purportedly taken in the aftermath of the Marawi City siege. The photos came from a reliable source, a government official in the city, who sought to express the trauma the people of Marawi were experiencing. Before we could complete the verification process (including having another reporter call the source and doing a reverse-image search), we posted all five photos.
That was a mistake, and we apologize unreservedly. Two of the photos were taken down around noon, when we double-checked with the source, and the rest were removed around 1 pm, when even the source’s assurances could no longer be supported. We regret not moving fast enough to correct the mistake.
We regret even more that this mistake cast a shadow over the reporting that the entire Inquirer Group put into the coverage of both the siege and the subsequent declaration of martial law. Those print, online, social, and radio stories were the best obtainable version of the truth at the time we reported them.
Moving forward, we will review our procedures and impose the necessary sanctions to make sure that this mistake will not happen again, even as we remain committed to cover the developing story as best we can.
