Jewellery World, an industry publication, has pulled a story from its website following allegations that it was biased and unbalanced.
Since Expertise Events managing director Gary Fitz-Roy – organizer of one of the fairs – complained about “Injurious Falsehood” about his case, a story on two New Zealand jewellery fairs held both over the last weekend of September was deleted from Jewellery World ‘s website.
The report was entitled “Fair Fight in New Zealand” to compare the results of the New Zealand Jewelry Fair (NZJF), organized by Expertise Events, and the New Zealand Jewelers and Watchmakers Fair.
According to Fitz-Roy, who demanded that the story be removed from the JW website when he saw it, the author of the story, Jewellery World’s publisher John Abolins, painted the inaugural NZJF in a negative light, without interviewing key players involved.
Abolins attended only the New Zealand Jewellers and Watchmakers Fair (JWNZ), but his story stated that the Expertise-run event ‘had a very quiet opening day on Saturday with very few retailers attending and even less buying, while the JWNZ Fair opened on Sunday with a rush of buyers eager to see the home-grown exhibition, which was loyally supported by many of New Ze’s artists.
Abolins went on to say that NZ retailers “showed their allegiance with their feet and wallets to the JWNZ fair – if a business was exhibiting at both venues, customers were delighted to see the variety at the Expertise Events Fair but focused on buying at the JWNZ fair.”
As the assertions were made without references being confirmed, Fitz-Roy, who was not given a comment, assumed that the report was not fair and balanced. Additionally, one person quoted in the story immediately criticized his remarks following publication – a representative of the Australian company PW Beck was quoted as saying “lacked atmosphere” at the Expertise Events fair and had “few customers,” something he dismissed as false when approached by Expertise Events.
On 21 October, Fitz-Roy wrote to Abolins that he had told the PWB representative to find out that PWB was “happy with business published on Saturday at the Expertise Events Fair” and that “both fairs contributed equal business.”
Confirmed that the report was not accurate, Fitz-Roy was incensed into concluding the news report with the opinion of an author: “The JWNZ Trade Fair seems to have been the clear winner for both exhibitors and visitors.”
His email to Abolins added: “News should be fair and dispassionate to write. A journalist should report impartially on the truth.’
Fitz-Roy then wrote to Simon Grover, managing director of Jewellery World, demanding that the story be removed from the website; “I don’t shy away from criticism, to be clear, as long as it is done fairly and without malice,” Fitz-Roy said in his email to Grover. “I think you should take urgent care of this, so that we don’t have to go down the road of Injurious Falsehood. Please confirm that you will take the appropriate and urgent steps outlined to minimize the damage done to Expertise Events.
The law defines injurious falsehood as a fallacious statement which causes intentional harm to the commercial or economic relations of an individual.
