I have respect for Thomas Wynne’s writing but I believe he should stop trying to justify his attack on Sir Gaven Donne.

It is not correct to say that Iaveta (Short) or I wrote opposing the pardon given to Albert Henry. It is not correct to say we don’t write to the newspaper on local issues. Thomas should talk to Josh Mitchell about my efforts and Iaveta has published a large volume of material over the last 60 years. More importantly, not everyone writes letters. Those of us who live here and our families do real work in our society to improve the life of Cook Islanders. Not everyone has time to write letters every week.

The reason we replied to Thomas’s article was that he made false allegations of bribery against a judge who played an important part in the development of our democracy. This was much more than shaking the apple tree! As a NZ journalist, Thomas needs to refer to the NZ Journalists Code of Ethics. One of the first principles is; “They shall do their utmost to correct any published or broadcast information found to be harmfully inaccurate”. It should now be clear to him and the editor that his original article was in fact “harmfully inaccurate”. I think he should apologise to Sir Gaven Donne’s family. So should the editor of Cook Islands News for printing the article.

Hopefully I don’t have to write any more letters on this subject so I can concentrate once again on fisheries.

Reuben Tylor,

Vaimaanga.