Sunday 20 November 2011

Fakecharity non-news

Shelter Cymru has made a bid for column inches in the Western Telegraph, claiming "Pembrokeshire is 19th on the list of places in Wales with the highest proportions of homeowners at serious risk of losing their homes through repossession". Now, presumably, by "places" they mean local authorities, of which Pembrokeshire is one.

However, there are only 23 LAs in Wales, so what Shelter Cymru is actually saying is that Pembrokeshire is fourth on the list of the list of places in Wales with the lowest proportions of homeowners at serious risk of losing their homes through repossession, but I suppose that wouldn't sound quite the same.

3 comments:

dearieme said...

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/Fayette-Co-woman-killed-by-cow-133464248.html

Ceri Dunstan said...

Dear Mark
I'm the press officer at Shelter Cymru and I'd like to clarify that we did not issue a press release stating that 'Pembrokeshire is 19th on the list of places in Wales with the highest proportions of homeowners at serious risk of losing their homes'.

Our press release highlighted the five local authorities in Wales with the highest proportion of people at risk of losing their homes and provided a table detailing where the rest of the 22 local authorities stood in comparison. The release is on our website here http://bit.ly/rHnzWA

The Western Telegraph has put that angle on the story, not us. They could just as easily have gone for the approach you did, ie noting that Pembrokeshire actually has one of the lowest proportions of people at risk of repossession, but it's not up to us how papers use the information we give. We just put it out there.

Shelter Cymru is very careful about the quality of the research and information we use and we certainly don't have a 'coverage at any cost' mentality. I would have been happy to discuss any aspect of this press release with you so I feel that branding us a 'Fakecharity' on your blog is more than a little unfair.
Yours
Ceri Dunstan
cerid@sheltercymru.org.uk

Bayard said...

Dear Ceri,

I am sorry I thought that the angle put on your press release had come from Shelter Cymru and not from the Western Telegraph themselves. It was I. Bayard, who made this post, not Mark.

However, you may not be aware, but "fakecharity" does have a definition, which is (from fakecharity.org): "We define a Fakecharity as any organisation registered as a UK charity that derives more than 10% of its income—and/or more than £1 million—from the government, while also lobbying the government. " After looking at your latest accounts, you appear to fit that definition.