Wednesday, November 16, 2011

7-Day News Journal apologizes to readers for hoax story about gecko

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Tuesday, 15 November 2011 21:15 Te Te

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The 7-Day News Journal said that the information and photos about the purchase of a US $2 million gecko published in the journal was a fake story sent in by a gecko trader.

The article with a headline “A 3 and ½ foot long gecko sold for 1.7 billion kyat” was published on the front cover of one the bestselling journals in Burma, on November 9. The journal apologized on its Facebook page on Tuesday and said the information was not true.

The invented story said that a gecko trader offered to buy the gecko at a price of 1 billion kyat but the seller did not sell at that price. When he returned with a higher offer, the story said the gecko had been sold to another trader for 1.7 billion kyat at Kyaukse village in Sagaing Region. The gecko trader used a picture from a Thai website.

The journal said on its Facebook page that the gecko trader had sent information to the journal earlier, and he was a reliable news source, so it used the information. The journal said that it failed to cross-check the story, but it did not invent the information.

When the journal published the story, there were many debates among readers and the story was popular on websites and Facebook pages.

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