I am getting a little worried that the UK's only real trade magazine for land-based industries is over stepping its remit when it comes to reporting on stories from around the horticulture world.
Garden Organic Chief executive, Myles Bremner has written a strongly worded response to an article which appeared on Hort Week on the 24th November, saying, "the Horticulture week article has misrepresented us" and "the journalist involved has, in my very strong opinion, written some very unfair articles on organic gardening in recent months."
Indeed it appears to be becoming a bit of a regular occurrence. Hort Week recently (mis) quoted BALI chief executive Sandra Loton-Jones as saying that landscapers who are not VAT registered "devalue the industry and make it look like something anyone can turn to."
The comment caused uproar amongst landscapers and gardeners - many of them who are under the VAT threshold - one called the remarks "Utter slanderous tosh and pomposity".
I received a letter from BALI chairman Richard Gardiner on the 10th November stating that Hort Week had, in the article on page 5 of the 6th November 2009 edition of Horticulture Week, misquoted Loton-Jones and had extracted the quote selectively from a longer interview and, in isolation, this could be open to misinterpretation.
Hort Week tried to diffuse widespread professional feeling by interjecting into the comments that followed their online piece by saying, "BALI no doubt meant in the reference to companies that are not VAT registered that many customers would not like to work with a contractor that is non-VAT registered when they should be - the sort of companies that could be described as rogue traders."
What do you think - are Hort Week abusing their editorial monopoly at expense of those who buy their magazine?
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