Yesterday, just-auto.com received notification from the Hungarian office of Daewoo Motor Co Ltd. that, unless a recent story concerning Daewoo’s operations in Eastern Europe was withdrawn, they would commence legal action.
The Hungarian office added that it, and the Daewoo headquarters, would also sue the article’s author, Ryan James Tutak.
In a fax to Tutak, Zsolt Beleznay, director of marketing and public relations for Daewoo in Hungary, denied Yoon made the comments reported in the article.
“Mr Yoon and Daewoo Motor Kft flatly deny all statements that allegedly were said by Mr Yoon about the state of factories in Eastern Europe,” Beleznay said. “In future, we ask you to publish only interviews that are acknowledged by us.”
In the fax, Beleznay added:
“We ask you to publish… an adjustment in the same length as the article with the falsehoods, and we want you to notify us within 48 hours about when you will publish it. Otherwise, Daewoo Motor Kft and Daewoo Motor Corporation Korea will take legal steps against you and Reuters just-auto.com.”
Beleznay mis-named the website: just-auto.com is not part of Reuters.
Following this, just-auto.com has conducted due diligence on the article and found no reason to believe the interview with Young-Jin Yoon, Daewoo’s sales director in Hungary, did not take place as reported.
just-auto.com has also obtained e-mail correspondence between Yoon and the just-auto journalist that acknowledges the meeting and the subsequent article.
just-auto.com has offered the Hungarian office of Daewoo rights to publish an article putting forward their view on the original story. This offer is still outstanding.
The original article can be found here
All enquiries regarding this story should be directed to Mike Gove, just-sites.com
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