Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Assault story: false alarm
My apologies folks. Out of the best of intentions, I carried an inaccurate story yesterday.
On Sunday, I picked a story up on the wires dated 24th September. It was on the well respected Cypriot Community newspaper website, Parikiaka.
I thought it odd that I hadn't heard anything else about this. So, before posting anything I wanted to verify it. So, that same afternoon, I phoned and messaged our neighbourhood police force and also direct messaged the Haringey Police Twitter stream.
Having heard nothing after more than 24 hours and with another night approaching, I thought long and hard about it and took the decision that the need of local women to be warned of the danger outweighed the need for 100% verification. Given the respectability of the source and the fact that the original story even carried quotes from the Chief Inspector, I thought the risk of inaccuracy was minimal. So I ran the story with a footnote caveat about its source.
This morning I heard back from @MPSHaringey in response to my Sunday afternoon message. They asked for a link to the source and came back some time later to say that the story relates to an incident in January 2011. They added that they'd no idea why it's carrying the 24th September 2012 date.
So, the story was an old one that I unwittingly recycled. I'm sorry to have reported an inaccurate story and for any needless concern caused by doing so. Sorry also to have wrong-foooted the Hornsey Journal with their pick-up of the story from HoL. My motivation was purely in the interests of the safety of local women. With the recent late night Stroud Green rape earlier in the month, I feared another pattern was developing and didn't want to be in the position of reading about another incident this week, knowing I might have helped prevent it.
I guess I'm far from being the first to carry a story that subsequently proves to be inaccurate, even the BBC has been there, but it's an uncomfortable feeling nonetheless to have done so.
This morning I asked for and was given a police phone number I can use 24/7 in the future. So you can rest assured that next time I will be in a position to verify any crime story without delay. In the meantime, let me be clear that I intend absolutely no criticism of the Police in what I've said above. The responsibility for running the story was completely my own.
The original story has been deleted.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Takaokagiejin on
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Pleased to know it hasn't happened again and very impressed by the lengths you go to in fact checking for the site. A lot more than the rest of us do (note to self)
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Thanks, Hugh.
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I think you did the right thing to run the story anyway. Better safe than sorry.
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Permalink Reply by Rachella on
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You seem to be doing a better job of fact-checking than the Hornsey Journal if it just picked the story up from Harringay Online without checking sources.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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A sub-thread about local journalism related to the flapjack post was moved to that post.
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For those who were following this sub-thread, I've recovered the 'now you see it, now you don't' article from the Haringey Indy and reproduced it here.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Harris on
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Seems to me you took the right decision Hugh. As you say 'I didn't want to be in the position of reading about another incident this week, knowing I might have helped prevent it.' You (and others) would have felt much worse if you'd done nothing, it had been genuine, and there'd been another incident.
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Hugh - also worth reflecting how your sense of responsibility compares with a certain Kelvin McKenzie, who is today demanding an apology from South Yorkshire police because they provided him with unreliable content which he published. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-19727779
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Permalink Reply by Alice Lemaitre on
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Thanks for the update Hugh.
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