"The Wall Street Journal" Is This Racism or Big-Money Or What?

A critique by Boakye-Dankwa Boadi

What can make a reputable media like "The Wall Street Journal" dabble in "gutter journalism? Is it racism or big-money or what?

The August 22,2014 edition of "The Wall Street Journal" carried a story, "Tiny Ghana Oil Platform's Big Output Sparks Scrutiny" in which it made unsubstantiated allegations against 'a small oil facility off the coast of Africa'.

The authors, Benoit Faucon and Drew Hinshaw were afraid of a possible lawsuit against them so they disingenuously avoided mentioning the name of the oil company involved. The import of the article was that: "Some US and Nigerian officials suspect Saltpond is one of the several destinations that smugglers use to transship stolen Nigerian crude, effectively laundering it by making it appear to come from a legitimate source outside of Nigeria".

The authors did not identify these nebulous officials, who only have a suspicion, nothing is proven yet they went ahead with this type of story that has the potential of ruining a company. Wherein lies the journalistic ethic of objectivity and fairness?

The authors downplayed the fact that "the platform operator had denied wrongdoing and Nigerian officials had confirmed that the operator has "legitimate contract with Nigerian authorities to transship oil that the country's law-enforcement officials have confiscated." This statement is false because Saltpond has no such contract. It was brought in to make the story to look authentic.

They stated that "Saltpond platform, meanwhile, has been a destination for at least one vessel connected to Nigerian oil theft, according to ship-tracking services". The truth is that a company based in Tema wanted to sell fuel for bunkering to the platform but it declined the offer. An act which deserved a commendation is being cited to criminalize the platform.

Again, even though a Senior US Official familiar with the issue told them: " Tankers often will come twice a week to load and will go abroad ....not Saltpond" they couched the sentence to reduce the impact of the statement.

The only person the authors identified was Emmanuel Oware, General Manager of Petro-Marine Consult, based in Tema, who was not bold enough to describe the purported oil as "stolen" but rather "unofficial".

Incidentally, Mr Oware has since told the GNA that the authors used subterfuge to obtain information from him. He said they told him they wanted to offer him a job and wanted to know if he had the requisite knowledge to undertake it. This act goes against the ethics of journalism.

Once again one may ask: "The Wall Street Journal" Is it Racism or Big-money or What?

The Writer of this article, Boakye-Dankwa Boadi was the Supervising Chief Editor and Acting Chief Executive Officer of Ghana News Agency, when he went on retirement in 2011.