Gornal News & Goings On

NEWS

Express and Star plagiarism - our article reinstated Regular Yampy readers will know of our problems earlier this year when the Express and Star plagiarised one of our articles, and then threatened us with legal action for defamation when we complained to them (click here and follow the links back). Confident of our case, but lacking the financial and legal resources of the E&S, we removed our story of their plagiarism, pending clarification from Deputy Editor Keith Harrison of what exactly they perceived as defamatory (a claim for defamation can not succeed if the statements in question are true). Since then we have emailed Mr. Harrison on many occasions, as well as his colleague Eileen Wells, but they have never replied. It appears that they are content, having apparently smothered our complaint behind the artificial 'defamation' smokescreen they created. Our patience exhausted, we have recently taken our own legal advice, as a result of which we are pleased to reinstate our article exposing the Express and Star's wrong doing. Here's the link: CLICK HERE. We are also embarking upon a publicity campaign to 'out' this bullying media Goliath that styles itself as "part of the family". We will be circulating widely the following copy, in the hope that bona fide news organisations will wish to investigate this attack on us: Is this fair? In November 2002 www.yampy.co.uk, a small Black Country news and local history web site, published an article about a Gornal pub known locally as ‘The Sunshine’. On 8th February 2003 the Express & Star published a similar article, much of which appeared to have been abstracted from the Yampy article, and approximately seventy words of which were taken almost word for word from the original. By the E&S journalist’s own admission, the photographs he used were obtained by ‘right-clicking’ and downloading them from www.yampy.co.uk. When Yampy contacted E&S Deputy Editor Keith Harrison to point out that a credit should have been given to the web site Mr. Harrison, far from apologising, replied as follows: These allegations are clearly defamatory to both the individuals involved and the Express & Star as a publication. and informed Yampy that he would be taking the matter further with E&S solicitors unless an apology from www.yampy.co.uk was forthcoming! Despite several attempts to clarify the nature of the perceived defamation, Mr. Harrison refuses to elaborate further than: We strongly dispute your claim that text was “lifted straight” from your site. Here is a section of text from the Yampy article, the result of weeks of research and contributions from a number of site visitors (note, this information was not supplied with the original photographs - the words used are all our own): There's Jim Wright second from the left next to the dog, Tommy Andrews fifth from the left wearing a hat, Joe Bodenham (one of 3 brothers, another was named Jack) in the centre behind the two girls. Joe is also on the 1940's picture, extreme right. Jack Clarke (but not Barry's Uncle Jack!) is fifth from the right along the back row, behind the right shoulder of Ernie Clarke (jnr.). According to Barry's mother, the two girls in the photo were sisters who lived in North Street (their father, not on the photo, was Jim Westwood), and the boy's name was Christopher. The eighth man from the right along the back row is Joe Ford, brother-in-law to Arthur Abbiss (married the sister of Arthur's wife). And here is a section of the E&S article: Jim Wright, second left next to the dog, Tommy Andrews fifth from the left wearing a hat, Joe Bodenham in the centre behind the two girls, Jack Clarke fifth right along the back row, behind Ernie Clarke (jnr.). The two girls were sisters who lived in North Street and the boy’s name was Christopher. The man eighth right along the back row is Joe Ford. Others are unknown. The final sentence in the E&S copy ‘others are unknown’ is significant, because in fact the others are known both to Yampy journalists and the family that provided the photographs to us. A single telephone call to either party would have given the E&S reporter all of the names he needed. Therefore, if this text was not lifted straight from the Yampy site, from where did it come? Why would the same people be named in the same sequence using the same words? A bullying newspaper takes a story and photographs from a small web site without permission, and threatens legal action for defamation when the site complains - is this fair? Do you have views on this issue? Please email us at admin@yampy.co.uk. You could also let Mr. Harrison know your opinion, his email address is public on the Express and Star website at www.expressandstar.com/es/aboutus/contacts/editorial.shtml

Next: School Holiday playscheme plan..