In the past, I have conducted training courses in developing countries with American colleagues and I often used to wince as I heard them say, as if it were an unbreakable rule, that journalists should not publish anything that hadn’t been verified by two independent sources. But alas, it is not as simple as that and, like so much else in journalism, it all comes down to the professional judgement of the individual journalist. Verification is a major issue for journalists the American Press Institute, for example, talks about journalism as a “ discipline of verification”. All rights reserved.To verify, or not to verify? That is the question that journalists face on an almost daily basis but the issue of whether media organisations should publish information that isn’t 100% watertight has been brought into sharp relief by the latest stories about Donald Trump and his alleged involvement with Russia. She could issue a ruling on the motion to either dismiss or transfer at any time. The case, originally filed in February, is pending before Miami U.S. Gubarev, however, contends that Buzzfeed regularly reports in and about Florida and that Webzilla has maintained a corporate presence and paid taxes in the state since 2009. "While the dossier itself continues to generate intense international interest, it is clear that this dispute about its publication has nothing to do with Florida." "On the most fundamental level, this action has no meaningful connection to Florida," the Buzzfeed lawyers wrote. They want the case dismissed or moved to New York, where Buzzfeed's headquarters are located. In a March 14 filing, Buzzfeed's attorneys contend the case has no place in a Florida court because neither Buzzfeed nor Gubarev's companies have a strong presence in the state. Gubarev is not involved in politics and has no connections with the Russian government, the document says. In his lawsuit, Gubarev is described as a "venture capitalist and tech expert" who moved from his native Russia to Cyprus in 2002. XBT operates 37,000 computer servers around the world, about 40 percent of them in Dallas, the document says. Since the dossier's publication, they added, Gubarev "has found his personal and professional reputation in tatters" and his wife has been subjected to online harassment. Gubarev, XBT, or Webzilla, has any basis in fact whatsoever," his attorneys wrote in a filing dated Monday. "Not a single portion of this statement, as it applies to Mr. In one paragraph, the dossier claims that Gubarev and his companies, XBT Holdings and Webzilla Inc., "had been using botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and conduct 'altering operations' against the Democratic Party leadership" at the behest of Russian entities, according to court documents filed by his lawyers. Trump himself has described the lurid dossier as "phony allegations" concocted by his political opponents. The Associated Press has not authenticated its claims. 10, Buzzfeed published the dossier in full, noting at the time that much of its content had not been verified. It contains unproven allegations of coordination between Trump's advisers and Russians on hacking the emails of prominent Democrats and makes unverified claims about sexual activities. The 35-page dossier, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, was circulating among multiple news outlets during the 2016 election. "Six Ways Buzzfeed Has Misled The Court (Number Two Will Amaze You). The most recent filing by Gubarev's attorneys on Monday appeared to mock Buzzfeed's editorial style by titling the document this way: Gubarev, 36, is seeking unspecified damages from Buzzfeed and its top editor, Ben Smith, for the lawsuit's libel and slander claims.īuzzfeed's lawyers, meanwhile, say the case should be tossed out of Miami federal court due to lack of jurisdiction or at least transferred to New York, where the company's main offices are located. The businessman, Aleksej Gubarev, claims he and his companies were falsely linked in the dossier to the Russia-backed computer hacking of Democratic Party figures.
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