2017-75 Steen Petersen vs Toronto Star

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November 22, 2017 – For immediate release

The National NewsMedia Council has mediated a complaint from Steen Petersen about mistaken attribution of a letter to the editor.

The complainant stated he wrote a letter to the editor recommending against the practice of tipping, but his name ended up under a different letter that presented a different point. The attribution error was published online but not in the paper’s print edition.

He complained to the paper about the error but got no response.

After the NNC intervened, the paper apologized for the delay in response and reported that it investigated the incident. It found the complainant’s letter to the editor was dropped from the print edition at the last minute due to space limitation, but that his name remained on file by mistake.
As a corrective action, the paper published the complainant’s name and letter to the editor online, and appended a notice of correction.

The NNC considers that corrective action on this complaint has been taken.