An American Observes a Vietnamese Approach to Newsgathering
‘Consider this a content sharing agreement, with the “agreement” part being implicit, at best.’
By
Sam Butterfield
Editor’s Note:
We have made the decision to remove from our online publication “An American Observes a Vietnamese Approach to Newsgathering” based on a number of concerns raised both within VietNamNet and by credible observers subsequent to its publication.
Sam Butterfield portrayed his summer internship through personal observations. However, we now believe that his experience should have been placed in a broader context. Had this been done, this story would have more fairly represented for the reader the general practices of VietNamNet and provided a truer sense of the limited vantage point out of which he wrote.
Since he does not read or speak Vietnamese, he worked on VietNamNet Bridge, the news organization’s English-language Web site that is considerably smaller than the Vietnamese site. Due to this circumstance, he was not qualified to characterize the entire news organization in the way his story suggested.
Melissa Ludtke, Editor
Jan Gardner, Assistant Editor
