| The
following is a response from Earth Times Senior
Editor Preeti Dawra to a letter from Charles
D. McLean, spokesman of the World Economic Forum:
I
would like to clarify what I believe are gross misrepresentations
of what actually transpired between The Earth Times
staff and the media team during the Annual Meeting
of the World Economic Forum 2002.
I was one of the four Earth Times reporters
that were given the orange badge for the Meeting.
During the course of the Meeting, I did not
at any point apologize to Mr. Charles McLean
on behalf of our paper or the editor. There was
absolutely no reason to do so. In fact, I felt
that the treatment meted out by the media team
to The Earth Times reporters was less than professional.
I will explain here why.
My only interaction with Mr. McLean, after we
published the story on the Forum banning our
paper from being distributed in the rooms of
the Waldorf, was on February 3. During this interaction,
my colleague Roman Rollnick and I approached
Mr. McLean in the media room and asked him politely
to see if his team could hand back copies of
the paper that were confiscated on the morning
of the same day from the Inter-Continental Hotel
lobby. Mr. McLean categorically denied that any
copies had been taken by the WEF team and said
he was saddened by our allegations that the papers
were being removed. I informed him then that
I had personally placed around 200 copies that
morning in the Inter-Continental lobby and they
were taken in front of our eyes by his media
team. Also, I added that Valerie Weinzierl of
the WEF media team snatched The Earth Times copies
from one of my colleagues, Hanna Sundburg's hands
that morning while she was helping us with distribution.
Mr. McLean just shook his head and walked away.
It is a fact that starting with February 3,
The Earth Times was systematically removed from
key areas (not including rooms) from both hotels--the
Waldorf and the Inter-Continental. While, it
is true that we did not have permission to distribute
in the main lobby area of the Waldorf, we were
granted permission to distribute in select areas
of the hotel which included the side and center
tables where the Grand Piano is placed. And,
we also had permission to distribute in the main
lobby of the Inter-Continental Hotel. So the
WEF team was inappropriately taking away the
papers from areas we were legitimately permitted
to distribute.
In addition, my stories reflect that there was
no attack journalism practiced on my behalf.
I would like to make it very clear that my editor
put no pressure on me to malign the Forum in
any way. For the entire duration of the Forum,
I covered some of the key panels and reported
them to the best of my ability with an unbiased
slant.
I am disappointed that Mr. McLean would choose
to use me and my colleagues to make his point.
I have full faith in the editorial integrity
of our paper and I choose to work here because
it allows me to be a part of a team that is committed
to report in a non-partisan manner on some of
the pivotal global issues of our society, some
of which were being discussed at the WEF.
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