NYT journalist vows to defend Axact scandal story in court

New York Times journalist Declan Walsh says he would defend his report with regard to Axact scandal if it is challenged in any court of law.

Talking to BBC Urdu on Wednesday, the US journalist revealed he had more evidence to corroborate his report on the scandal that he didn’t mention in his story.

Mr Walsh is quite sure he would be able to successfully defend his report if the matter is brought before any court of law. Replying to a question, he said “Defending sources is is not something new in the field of journalism, especially when your life or property is at stake. And that is exactly the situation the former employees of Axact are faced with in Karachi.”

Declan Walsh said the administration of the Axact makes its employees sign an undertaking at the time of job offer under which they are not allowed to disclose details of their job.

Walsh said he had interviewed a number of Axact’s ex employees and found their stories to have striking similarities.

He said he had no idea what course of action the Federal Investigation Agency (FBI) was going to take in the matter. However, he added, that there are instances where FBI had undertaken probe and action against companies based in the US but no such example exists for an overseas organization.