A FEW days ago, my friend from Davao, Jon Develos of the Mindanao Times, contacted regarding a story we ran a few weeks ago. Jon said his friends in the karatedo community questioned the claims of Rafael Vidal winning a gold medal in the Mayor’s Cup tournament in Malaysia recently.
Naturally, because this was something that could be newsworthy, I told Jon to tell his friends to contact me and provide details and proof of their allegations, while at the same time, I told our reporter that there were questions being asked regarding a report he wrote.
Edri K. Aznar, our reporter known by the initials EKA, was first to provide back-up, and nothing was more telling than Vidal posing with the event’s poster with his three medals, a day later,
Jon forwarded a medal tally of the Malaysian event that listed Vidal’s club as having won two silvers only, and no gold medal.
After forwarding the picture and relaying that Vidal joined two age groups, and not just one, I told Jon to tell his friends to contact me personally regarding their allegations. Their reply, a bit stand-offish, was disappointing.
“We already have the proof. Kung ayaw nila, credibility nila at stake for publishing false news. Not up to us to prove, but for them to confirm if it’s right or wrong. It’s their work to make sure that they publish the correct information.”
It’s as if we are allergic to publishing corrections or that we were wrong. That’s not the case and as I pointed out to my buddy, that’s not how the process of correcting a report works.
Since it’s their group that has questions and is accusing one camp of claiming false victories, it is their duty to present proof. Besides, they are questioning a source who have, for years provided reliable info and in sports reporting, there’s a certain act of good faith involved; you expect a source who provides infos in events you haven’t covered to be honest. So far, the Vidals haven’t broken that trust.
The tone of the messages seem to show a lot of distrust so I dug deeper. The Vidals belong to a different club while those raising questions belong to the AAK.. Aaaaah.
And it’s not our credibility that is at stake here. It’s the Vidals’ and the AAK’s. One party has presented its proof, I’m still waiting for the other party to present its allegations.
Like I told EKA, it’s the problem in the karatedo community. If this was football or basketball, Cebuanos would have been happy to learn someone from Davao won a tournament in Malaysia; in karatedo, the winner gets accused by kababayans of “borrowing a medal.”
(mikelimpag@gmail.com)