Board response to the Titulian Conservative Group of newspapers

It has come to the attention of the Express that unnamed representatives of the Titulian Conservative newspaper group have defamed our newspaper for it's reporting methods. It was news to us at the Express that there was ever any tension between the two companies.

Our board was always under the impression that the Titulian Conservative newspaper, though hard right-wing in it's reporting, was independent of any political organisation. We were aware that shareholding in the board comprised members of the RNC, but interested to discover only today how much influence the Republican National Committee had over the TC Media Corporation. Up until this week, the group had only ever pointed to the RNC Daily as their sole political party publication.

It was suggested in previous weeks that TC Media may have also been in receipt of corporate support from the Social Democratic Party although we have not found any evidence to back this claim.

It has been put in criticism of the Express that our newspaper operates solely for the benefit of the Liberal Republican Party. In the interests of corporate transparency, not all editors at the Express are members of the LRP. The Express has one full time editor and several contributing editors with a carried interest, expertise of research or skill to aide a story's reporting. This ethical standard supports our counter claim that the Express is the most balanced in Titulian journalism.

The Express supports healthy competition for the best reporting, although attacking a competitor for covering issues that Titulia cares about is spiritless, scurrilous and a cheek. Any Titulian can ask the Express to cover a story at any time. We do our best to ensure all sides of a story are told with equal weighting. It's not the fault of editors if the story is published without sufficient bias applied on the view of the reader. We are a registered news company, not a polling or opinion group.

Only through the diversity of Titulia's national media can all citizens be assured that the best coverage of news and issues are reported. We take no issue with the Titulian Conservative group of papers reporting on what they wish. It does raise the question on how confident they must be with their reporting technique if they see the need to unduly attack their competition, however if they take issue with the Titulia Express that is no fault of ours.

John Baxter
Editor