Associated Incidents
Early in the morning of October 15th, something went seriously wrong for NTB; when the news agency published a news report about Telenor's annual security report that had been sent out that morning.
Shortly afterwards, the entire report was withdrawn and replaced with another text.
Now the Journalisten can tell exactly what was wrong with the original report. It contained a long series of errors about what Telenor stated and meant in the report.
Not least; of the five direct quotes, all of which are stated to be taken from the report, none can be found in the original source, according to the Journalisten's own review.
When NTB names a Telenor director in the article, it also goes wrong.
Five false quotes
The NTB quotes can in some cases be said to be paraphrasing points in the report, but appear in several places as exaggeration and distortion of Telenor's message.
This is how the NTB quotes looked:
«-- Extreme weather and long-term power outages are today the greatest risk to socially critical telecommunications infrastructure».
«-- There is now a need for a new national standard for backup power in critical infrastructure, with a requirement for at least 24 hours of operation».
«-- Today's solutions are not designed for a changing climate».
«-- We see an increasing fusion of physical and digital events, where extreme weather, power outages and cyber attacks work together».
None of these direct formulations are found in the report, and Telenor does not, for example, go out and demand a new national standard for backup power.
The fifth and final direct quote was stated to come from the report's foreword:
"-- The combination of extreme weather, aging infrastructure and digital risk requires a new approach, the company writes in the foreword, signed by Security Director Håkon Berg."
Fictitious Director
Neither extreme weather nor "aging infrastructure" is mentioned in a single word in the actual foreword, which is also not signed by Håkon Berg, but by CEO Birgitte Engebretsen.
And furthermore; no "Håkon Berg" is or has been Security Director at Telenor.
Although NTB announced that the article was withdrawn that same morning two weeks ago, at the time of writing it is still available in some online newspapers, such as Finansavisen.
Nettavisen, which also published the report, changed after an hour and a half to “NTB withdraws case about uncertainty in the Norwegian mobile network” and updated with the newly released content from NTB.
Taking action internally
NTB's news editor Christina Dorthellinger Nygaard is lying flat. She confirms that the incorrect details have ended up in the article after the use of so-called artificial intelligence.
-- Here it turned out that KI was used incorrectly, and that we had not fulfilled either 3.2 or 3.7 of the Be careful poster and, among other things, reproduced incorrect quotes. We have made a very serious mistake, so serious that the case had to be withdrawn, she tells Journalisten.
The incident has been raised and discussed internally, and NTB's citation practices related to KI will also be a topic at the editorial board's weekly meeting next Wednesday, says the news editor, who has also had personal contact with Telenor and apologized to them.
No more cases found
-- Is it extra important for NTB to be accurate in its use of citations?
-- It is extra important not to make mistakes like this in the times we are in, we as an industry have a great responsibility to be aware of this. We at NTB have our own responsibility because we deliver to so many. At the same time, we are also human, and it is human to make mistakes, says Dorthellinger Nygaard.
NTB journalists are allowed to use AI help in their work, but one rule is that NTB's own, internal tools must be used. NTB has, among other things, its own "citation helper".
In the Telenor case, internal tools were not used, says Dorthellinger Nygaard.
The case triggered an internal review of other news reports:
-- We have gone through a lot, and have not found any other cases, says the news editor.
Telenor contacted
Telenor confirms that the problematic NTB report was noticed by them.
-- We can confirm that we contacted NTB quickly after the case was published and pointed out the errors. NTB was quick to depublish, a decision we believe was correct. Beyond this, we leave it to NTB to comment on this case, writes press manager Anders Krokan in an email.
NB: The journalist recently mentioned another case where NTB had to change the quotes after publication. In this case, it has not been concluded exactly what caused the problems.