Left: Garfield Grandison, Editor-in-Chief Right:Lynford Simpson, Quality Editor (email: lynford.simpson@gleanerjm.com)

Dear Readers:

IN JANUARY, when we introduced our revamped Code of Ethics and Professionalism, we promised updates from time to time. Today is our first.

We have named our first quality editor to police our code. This editor, Lynford Simpson, a journalist with over 15 years of experience, is also responsible for addressing reader complaints.

In recent times, questions have been raised in some quarters about our coverage of Cash Plus Ltd and its head, Carlos Hill. We have just completed a comprehensive review of our coverage.

Fifty-five stories, four opinion columns, two editorials and nine letters to the editor, published over a five-year period, were examined. They were assessed for balance, fairness and context. They were also examined for their public relations (PR) nature.

Key findings

Generally, stories which mentioned only the name Cash Plus - those reporting on events sponsored by the entity - were not included. The majority of the articles in our review were published over the last two years. This was about the time Cash Plus Ltd came fully on the national radar.

The following are the key findings:

Eight of the 55 stories fell into the PR category, promotional pieces for Cash Plus and Carlos Hill. Nine of the 55 stories would have failed our current code of ethics, if they were published today. These stories required more exact editing. In addition, our newsroom could have done a better follow-up job on announced Cash Plus Ltd acquisitions. Those articles reporting on alleged acquisitions of the Hilton Kingston hotel and Drax Hall, for example, contained inaccuracies. The properties were never purchased.

Promise to meet high standards

With our revised code of ethics, our increased level of staff training and our daily product reviews, we feel confident that we will continue to produce stories which are fair, balanced and reflect varied view points. We will ensure exact editing to ensure we produce products which meet your very high and demanding standards.

Please, hold us to this commitment.

Read our code of ethics, our covenant with you our readers, at: jamaica-gleaner.com/ editorialpolicy.html.

We urge you to email us any breach of this code or your views on this newsroom. Write to: editor@gleanerjm.com.

We want to hear from you.