Quebec journalist Francois Bugingo suspended, accused of fabrication

Francois Bugingo

The website iMediaEthics reports that the Montreal French-language radio station 98.5 FM has suspended journalist Francois Bugingo after La Presse accused him of widespread fabrication.
"Mr Bugingo is suspended for the moment," Christine Dicaire, the director of communnications for 98.5FM told iMediaEthics by e-mail. "We will try to clarify this situation in the upcoming days. We will not be making any further comments for the moment."
Executive Group Media also suspended Bugingo today.  A statement on Group TVA's website reads:
"Executive Group Media says the allegations against one of its employees, François Bugingo, are important and taken seriously. The collaboration with Mr. Bugingo is suspended until checks are made.  Management cautions that Mr. Bugingo is not an employee of the Media Group, but a collaborator."
On Facebook, Bugingo wrote that he is "stunned by this attack" and defended his work as "always verified."
"I will defend my integrity in times and places as well as to concerned bodies," he wrote, according to Google Translate.
La Presse accused Bugingo of having "invented from scratch" stories.
For example, Bugingo wrote for Journal de Montreal last year that he was in Misrata, Libya watching an execution, but "the problem is that Francois Bugingo has never set foot in Misrata," La Presse reported.
"Nor has he toasted with Serbian snipers in Sarajevo in 1993. He has not negotiated the release of a journalist hostage to terrorists of Al Qaeda in Mauritania in September 2011," La Presse went on. "He was not a representative of the European Commission to the Egyptian Minister of the Interior in Cairo in February 2011. He was not in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 4 August 2011."
According to CBC, Bugingo has contributed to a number of media outlets, including La Presse, TVA, Le Devoir, Journal de Montréal, Télé-Québec and Radio-Canada.
Link to iMediaEthics story