Open letter to De Tijd, Mediafin and De Persgroep

Dear Sir,

When I started reading the ‘De Tijd’ newspaper at breakfast this morning, I noted that De Tijd, and Bert Broens in particular, is continuing without abatement its ‘damage Agfa-Gevaert’ campaign.

In recent months, we have noticed that this journalist continuously reports on Agfa-Gevaert in a one-sided negative manner and that he doesn’t hesitate to publish inaccurate information.

The most striking examples were the articles published just before the General Meeting of Shareholders held in April. In these articles, he 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. 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. I leave it to you to decide if this is ethically acceptable.

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. In today’s article some details were used to create a completely negative image.

It is obvious that we are not able to win every single contract. If that would be the case, we would hold a monopoly. Furthermore, it is only normal that occasionally a colleague leaves the company. It seems to me that this shouldn’t be a reason for this type of negative coverage either.

Regarding this article, not a single contact was made with our company in order to at least check the accuracy of the information or to obtain additional information.

Again, I leave it to you to judge the quality of this kind of journalism.

I personally have put all means of communication at Bert Broens’ disposal, my private mobile phone number included. I believe I can’t do more than that.

Agfa-Gevaert is one of the few Belgian companies with very important global market shares in almost all of its activities. This goes for both our graphic and our healthcare business. Our competitors are therefore only too anxious to translate and spread this kind of articles amongst our customers.

Why a newspaper, which is presenting itself as the newspaper for the entrepreneurs in
Flanders, is leading such a damaging campaign, goes beyond my comprehension.

It will therefore come to you as no surprise that I will demand – as a right to reply – the publication of a text from my hand, of comparable length in De Tijd.

In my opinion, this is the strict minimum that can be done to somewhat limit the significant economic damage created by this campaign.

Jo Cornu

CEO Agfa-Gevaert