Qantas commits social media no-no by requesting journalist to take down Facebook post about maintenance history

Qantas have made a request to Singapore’s ChannelNews Asia reporter and anchorman, Timothy Go, to take down his Facebook post questioning Qantas’ maintenance record. This after a second Qantas aircraft was forced to made an emergency landing at Singapore’s Changi Airport.

Qantas was obviously offended when Timothy post the following status update:

Qantas QF6 returns to Singapore after engine problems. This time a B747. Qantas have serious maintenance issues to solve!

After that, Qantas asked Timothy to take down his post which Timothy decided not to.

Qantas asked me to remove my previous post about the airline having maintenance issues. They said as a journalist I should not speculate until investigations are complete. So I wont. I'll let the article below explain.

Friends of Timothy on Facebook have in turn question Qantas’ action.

Commented George Orr,

As a journalist, you inform the public without fear or favor. You don't work for them. You work for your audience.

Even if maintenance was not the cause of the second forced landing, Qantas should have respond to Timothy’s post instead of asking him to take it down. A respond would have created better goodwill between the airline, the journalist and his friends.

Requesting a take down creates a perception that Qantas has something to hide.

Even if it is an official press conference, you respond to the journalist’s question not ask the journalist to take it back.

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