Cloning: More ethics violated

2005-12-05 12:18

Seoul - A South Korean broadcaster has admitted using coercion to obtain information critical of cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk and has suspended airing a report alleging that his breakthrough stem cell research was fabricated.

Seoul-based MBC issued a statement on Sunday admitting its investigative reporting team had violated journalistic ethics in reporting on Hwang for the weekly programme PD Network.

The world-renowned researcher was forced to step down from his official posts and offer an apology on November 24, two days after the network broadcast allegations of ethical lapses in his research.

A second instalment of the programme, making more explosive allegations concerning the validity of Hwang's research, was scheduled to air on Tuesday.

"We have decided to suspend a plan to air a follow-up programme about Hwang's research," a spokesperson for South Korea's second largest TV network said on Monday.

He said top executives were still discussing when to air the programme or whether it would be scrapped.

Hwang's reputation on the line

MBC became a target of national anger when it broadcast an initial report attacking Hwang, a national hero, two weeks ago.

The criticism of MBC continued after Hwang admitted the charges were true - that some of the eggs used in his experiments had been paid for and that others had been obtained from members of his own research team.

International ethical standards frown on egg donations by researchers, especially junior staff who may be vulnerable to pressure.

MBC says it obtained information concerning the origin of the eggs from some of Hwang's own researchers and based on interviews with them it was going to broadcast a second report that would be far more damaging to Hwang's reputation, as it would claim he had faked landmark research findings earlier this year on stem cells.

Conflicting reports over research

However on Sunday MBC was forced into an apology after two of Hwang's researchers told Seoul-based cable news television YTN that the MBC team had misled them and used coercion to force them to give information unfavourable to Hwang.

"MBC sincerely apologises to the people," MBC said. "MBC will insist that those involved in the violations of the journalistic code of ethics take responsibility."

The two researchers deny MBC's contention that they said Hwang's research had been faked.

"I never made such a statement," one of the researchers, Kim Seon-Jeong, the source for the MBC report, said in the YTN interview.

He said he clearly told MBC that the allegations against Hwang concerning falsified research results were "not true".

Hwang's team has said in its study published in May in the periodical, Science, that it had produced patient-specific stem cells from cloned human embryos. To do this, a patient's somatic cell is planted into a human egg whose nucleus has been removed. The DNA of the stem cells produced by the experiment would genetically match the patient's cells.

However, MBC staff obtained samples of stem cells from Hwang's team and had them tested independently. Later MBC said the tests were not conclusive, but showed there may be problems with Hwang's findings.

According to media reports, of 45 samples tested, only one was readable, and it did not match the original donor cell. MBC asked Hwang's team to conduct a new test to verify the results but the researchers dismissed MBC's findings and refused, according to media reports.

- AFP