De Tijd refuses publication of a right to reply by Agfa-Gevaert

More than a year now, the newspaper De Tijd is running an operation “damage Agfa-Gevaert”. During this period, a one-sided, negative image of Agfa-Gevaert is drawn along with the regular publication of complete untruths.

About a year ago De Tijd published in big lines on its front page that “the Agfa management is peddling the company”. We were obliged to deny this complete nonsense immediately with a press release.

The most striking examples were the articles published just before the General Meeting of Shareholders held in April. In these articles, it was claimed that a number of important Agfa-Gevaert shareholders would vote against certain agenda items. When we checked this with our shareholders, the information turned out to be completely false. Franklin Templeton, our main shareholder, even felt forced to issue a press release to deny the content of the articles. In this case it is clear that even the most elementary rules of objective journalism were not observed.

Another example is a series of articles with completely false information about a possible operation involving Agfa Graphics. Insiders in the business know that this campaign was inspired by the management of Punch. This has nothing to do with normal journalistic ethics.

More recently, the campaign is aimed at Agfa HealthCare. This business group’s important successes, such as the huge contract signed with the
Paris
hospitals, were minimized. On last Friday’s front page an article was announced under the title “Agfa’s market share under pressure”. The article itself describes the loss of a couple of contracts over a period of some months. In that same period, however, Agfa signed a multiple of contracts, in many cases of a much higher value. These new contracts are mentioned on our website, available to everyone for consultation. None of these contracts are mentioned in the article. The statement that our market shares are under pressure is completely false and based on nothing.

It would have been normal to make contact with our company to check the accuracy of the information, before publishing it on the front page. This, however, did not happen; another proof of unprofessional journalism.

The publication of al these untruths is damaging our company. Competitors are only too anxious to translate and spread this kind of articles amongst our customers. The economic damage that is created, is not to be underestimated. Apparently, this is of no concern to the editorial staff of a newspaper that is profiling itself as the newspaper for the entrepreneurs in
Flanders.

It is therefore normal that Agfa-Gevaert demanded a right of reply from the De Tijd. The editor’s refusal to publish this text is unacceptable to us. It is a proof of malice and a lack of courage to be critical for one’s own way of reporting.

Agfa-Gevaert was thus left no alternative to clarify the situation than by means of this press release. We will not hesitate to do this again in the future if De Tijd will continue its damage campaign.

Jo Cornu

CEO Agfa-Gevaert