Urban youth broadcaster Yarona Fm has suspended with immediate effect its News Editor Oteng Chilume and Assignment Editor Kaombona Kanani for airing a story on presidency residence. Last week Friday, the youth radio station carried a story in their news bulletin headlined “Hacking group threatens to reveal State House secrets and shut down DIS.”
The story was also posted on the Yarona FM News Facebook page. A Facebook account going by the name “Asparagus’ had posted a statement threatening to expose sordid escapades inside the State House and even mentioned the names of the characters alleged to have taken part in the hideous acts. The news editors at the radio station ran with the story on Friday only to be handed with suspension letters when they came back from the weekend on Monday.
Yarona FM station manager David Moepeng confirmed in an interview on Monday that the duo have been suspended pending investigations into how the story made it into the radio’s news bulletin. While he confirmed that some of the people mentioned in the story had for now only informally complained to the management, he said they too found the story to have failed proper journalism ethics. The station has since released a statement retracting and apologizing for broadcasting the story.
“The Yarona FM board and management have distanced themselves from the story and wish to apologize to all affected parties. An internal investigation to avoid such instances recurring in future is underway”, the statement reads in part.
