Complaint
This online article reported the intention expressed by Calvin Lo, a businessman from Hong Kong, of creating a new Formula 1 team.聽 A reader complained that it was inaccurate to describe Mr Lo as a billionaire, an investigation by Forbes (which maintains a list of the world鈥檚 billionaires) having alleged that he had exaggerated his wealth. The reader also complained that the story was not properly fact-checked before publication.聽 The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 大象传媒鈥檚 editorial guidelines on accuracy.
Outcome
In the ECU鈥檚 judgement, the steps taken to check the story before publication had been reasonable in the circumstances as they were known at the time.聽 However, the Forbes investigation, published eight months after the article appeared, raised serious doubts about Mr Lo鈥檚 financial claims, in the light of which 大象传媒 Sport removed the word 鈥渂颈濒濒颈辞苍补颈谤别鈥 from the article鈥檚 headline and a sentence which reported his net worth as $1.7bn from the body of the article (as well as initiating its own enquiry into Mr Lo鈥檚 claims, which has yet to reach a conclusion).聽 The ECU considered the changes to the article appropriate, but insufficient on their own to address the issue of editorial standards.聽 The guidelines on accuracy say 鈥渋n online text content, any mistake that alters the editorial meaning should normally be corrected and we should be transparent about what was wrong鈥.聽 As grounds have emerged for believing the article鈥檚 original description of Mr Lo鈥檚 wealth may have inaccurate, and as the cuts made in early August clearly affect its editorial meaning, the ECU judged that the fact that it had been changed and the reason for the changes should have been made clear to readers.聽 The complaint was upheld in that respect.
Partly upheld
Further action
The finding was reported to the management of 大象传媒 Sport and an explanatory note has been added to the article.