Recently, a worrying unfactual article was published by the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) which mentioned Voice of Wales. This article, called “How Disinformation Arrived in Wales and Where It’s Going Next”, a number of completely defamatory statements were made about us. In response to this, we sent an email to them asking that they retract their statement.
I have published, below, the entire letter in it’s full capacity, with hopes that this holds their vile unfactual “journalism” to account.
https://www.iwa.wales/agenda/2022/09/how-disinformation-arrived-in-wales-and-where-its-going-next/
In an article by one of your journalists entitled “How Disinformation Arrived in Wales and Where It’s Going Next”, there’s a number of mistakes which is ironic considering the alleged topic of the article, which one can only assume from the title is to “combat misinformation”.
In the interest of fair reporting and disinformation within said article, I would like to point out a number of things to be corrected:
1. Firstly, Voice of Wales hasn’t used their telegram group to “coordinate large and small opportunistic protests, from a protest against facial recognition cameras at Cardiff Station to a large-scale protest across the Severn Bridge.” The facial recognition protest mentioned was organised by Students Against Tyranny, which is not an “offshoot” as you inaccurately claimed. Students Against Tyranny was started September 5th 2021 by James Harvey. It was a couple weeks after the campaign group was launched before Voice of Wales even interviewed him. James later started working with Voice of Wales, but his work as a journalist and his work as an activist is not to be confused as the same. He does separate work for both organizations. And what do you mean by their alleged involvement in the Severn Bridge protest? They didn’t even attend it, let alone have any involvement in the organisation of the “large-scale” event?
2. Your claim that Voice of Wales spreads “misinformation” is highly dubious and malicious and without proof constitutes defamation under the Defamation Act 2013.
3. Another indirect claim is that Voice of Wales collaborates / “organizes” with other “UK wide groups” such as A Stand in the Park. A stand in the Park is an activist movement whereby like-minded people meet once a week to organize and plan events. Voice of Wales is simply a media company and the only time we’ve attended one of these events was to report on it!
I hereby ask that you publicly retract your wildly inaccurate and defamatory statements about Voice of Wales as every single point you make about us is completely untrue. I also invite you to point out what Voice of Wales has said or done that can be tagged as “disinformation”
I also find it highly ironic that an article on “disinformation” has so many untruths to it and things you claim as factual, are categorically untrue.
Many thanks,
James Harvey
