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The CBC broadcast one of the biggest clarifications in Canadian television history yesterday -- a 16-minute documentary about how two news reports from Kosovo by one of its senior reporters turned out to be false.
The network is turning itself inside out about the stories, by reporter Nancy Durham. They centred on an 18-year-old girl, Rajmonda Rreci, who claimed she was joining the Kosovo Liberation Army because Serbian forces killed her sister. During a follow-up visit this summer, Ms. Durham discovered that Ms. Rreci's sister is alive. She confronted Ms. Rreci, who said she lied in part to get on television and help advance the cause of her people. Journalists, she added, only came to Kosovo "for their careers."
Instead of issuing a retraction, Ms. Durham did a documentary exploring what happend. The CBC sent out press releases promoting the documentary and then aired it four times yesterday on the main network and Newsworld.
Ms. Durham was also interviewed on several CBC television and radio programs and the documentary was discussed on at least two other CBC shows.
Ms. Durham, who has worked at the CBC off and on for 20 years, bristled yesterday when asked if the network is engaging in a massive correction. "I wouldn't characterize it like that at all," she said. "I don't like having broadcast something that wasn't true, but I stand by what I did 100%."
She added that she did all she could to verify Ms. Rreci's story before it first aired last year. At one point Ms. Rreci dissuaded Ms. Durham from visiting her family's village because she said it would put them in danger. Ms. Durham said it was a reasonable request because of the turmoil at the time. She went to the village last month, and discovered the sister, during what was supposed to be a follow up profile of Ms. Rreci.
Kelly Crichton, executive producer of The National Magazine, also said the report wasn't a correction.
"I certainly think it's setting the record straight on what we said before," she said, adding that the CBC often runs reports on both CBC and Newsworld. "But I think it's trying to go beyond that and trying to analyze why this happened and how it happened and to explore much further the motivation behind Rajmonda doing this."
Ms. Crichton also rejected any comparison to recent problems over inaccurate stories at other media. For example, last year CNN fired two producers involved in a story that claimed American troops used nerve gas on defectors during the Vietnam War. CNN retracted the story after complaints from the Pentagon. However, the producers stood by the story and have sued CNN for $100-million (US).
Ms. Crichton said Ms. Durham's report is different because all foreign correspondents are vulnerable to similar situations in war zones. "Rarely do we ever get to go back and check on whether [what reporters are told] was actually the case."
She also did not expect any changes to how CBC reporters work. Ms. Durham's work is somewhat unique within the CBC because she often operates without a crew and uses a hand-held camera. She hinted yesterday that some colleagues may seize on the clarification to discredit that kind of work.
Donna Logan, a former CBC executive and current director of the Sing Tao School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia, applauded the CBC and said other media outlets should take note.
"I think it's high time that this issue was out in the open and explored to a much greater extent," she said. "The media has always been very reluctant to do corrections, apologies and mea culpas, and I think that is in part what has led to a lot of the distress that exists between the media and the public."
Vince Carlin, another former CBC executive and now head of the journalism school at Toronto's Ryerson Polytechnic University, agreed.
"It seems interesting that they would do it," he said referring to the clarification. "I'm not sure how many organizations would."