Picture: SUNDAY TIMES
Picture: SUNDAY TIMES

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THE Press Ombudsman on Thursday dismissed a complaint from former Sunday Times reporter Pearlie Joubert that the Times Media Group unfairly maligned her integrity in two online reports in December 2015.

Ms Joubert had complained that the reports deliberately misrepresented a legal affidavit and that they further contained falsehoods regarding her employment at the newspaper.

The two stories, "Times Media and Oppelt reject claims of Sunday Times improprieties", and "Our stories on rogue SARS unit are backed by three probes", had further included responses from Times Media Group to an existing letter and affidavit by Ms Joubert.

Her complaint that she was not given a right to reply was therefore further dismissed, the Ombudsman ruling read.

Among the complaints were that the stories had seen denials that the source of Sunday Times stories related to a "rogue unit" at the South African Revenue Service (SARS) was Rudolf Mastenbroek, a former SARS employee, with Ms Joubert arguing she had never implied or stated this.

The Ombudsman, however, ruled it could not "fault Sunday Times for stating that its former employee "implied" (not stated as fact) that Mr Mastenbroek had influenced the newspaper’s reporting on a rogue unit in SARS, or had at least tried to do so," the ruling read.