Santa Zongo, is a young journalist on an independent paper in Landaba County.
One day, he received a phone call.The caller didn’t give his name, but simply said: “Meet me at the tea stall in the old-clothes market in an hour. I have a story that will make your career.” Zongo was intrigued. When he got to the place, no-one was there, but the stall-holder showed him an envelope and said “Are you John? A man in a white shirt said I should give you this.” The envelope contained a videotape.
It seemed to show the President sitting at a table in the presidential palace garden, accepting a suitcase full of banknotes from a well-known businessman, who had recently been acquitted in a big money-laundering case. Zongo was very excited. But when he discussed the videotape with his editors, they were divided.
One said: “This story will make the paper! It’s obvious this is a recent tape because of the weather and how the two men look. We can bring down the government with cast-iron proof that crooked businessman bought his acquittal. We’ll put stills from the video on the front page. Good work, Zongo!” But the other said: “I’m not so sure. We don’t know where this came from, it might be a fake, and there could be many reasons why money is changing hands. It could even be a donation to the President’s charity fund.”
Then the editors discussed how to proceed, and asked Zongo what he thought, since he’d brought in the tape.
If you were Zongo, what would you have contributed to the discussion? What should the paper do next?