Jehova’s Witnesses linked to Child suicide in Albania
Back in May 2005 I gave an interview for the noted Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). The interview regarded a hot topic at the time, about several youth suicide cases for which the media was accusing the Jehovah’s Witnesses as responsible.
The journalist in charge of covering this story in Albania for IWPR was Suela Musta. I believe that she is a good journalist overall, but her sense of professionalism was lacking at this particular occasion as she was in dire need to find the right person to interview and who could be better than someone who knew about the JWs and was willing to answer her questions in this regard.
To keep this story short, she discovered the Albanian Christian website that I direct and sent me her list of questions about the issue. Even in this case, as I do regularly, I accepted to answer her questions agreeing thus to have my name quoted in her article.
However, in the answers that I provided to her I was quite clear about the fact that I was not a Jehovah’s Witness and that my concern in this matter was to clarify some of the many misunderstandings and false allegations made against this sect.
I have studied and written about the JWs for several years now. I took some courses in College and then have been reading off and on about them since then. However, my religious believes do not coincide with those of the JWs and for those that have visited albKristian.com, there is not doubt about who I am and what I truly believe in as a Christian.
Despite my clear statements to not being a JW, Mr. Musta went ahead and quoted me as one. Needless to say that this was completely inappropriate and very unprofessional on her part.
I had even asked her after I sent her the interview questions, to send me a copy of the draft, but she never did. I had to find out for myself almost a month after the article was published that I was quoted as a representative of JWs.
I immediately complained about this to the Editor in Chief of the IWR.. and all the e-mail addresses that I could find on their website. But despite the fact that they were not as quick to correct this, my problem was multiplied by the fact that the article had been picked up by many other sources and published in more than one language.
The did change my title on the English and Albanian version of the article, but left it as it was in the other languages, which I could not really understand why.
Needless to say that I am still angry and very displeased about this as it has a negative effect on my reputation and my name. My hope is that this post will at least help clarify this for those who really want to know the truth.
Links:
Albanian Forum
Just Watch
Kosova Report
IWPR
Copyright (c) Albanian Blogger 2007
