Wednesday 22 October 2008

Najib accepts Malaysiakini’s apology…

…and praised it’s reporter, Wong Choon Mei, who had written a report on a manifesto from a 'support group' which was wrongly attributed to him, as having shown "high values of professionalism" in claiming responsibility for the error.

Wong had resigned yesterday. (read here )

The Deputy Prime Minister said he was satisfied with the apology issued by the news portal.

“I accept the apology or decision to seek an apology by the editor of Malaysiakini on the publishing of the completely untrue manifesto that I (purportedly) issued.

"Secondly, I want to state that the journalist who resigned over the said article has shown high values of professionalism as she has demonstrated her responsibility (and) accountability for the story which is not at all true," he said.

"The question is the guilty quarters - the real culprits - behind the report are still hiding and we still do not know who is responsible for the said story," added Najib, who is also Umno deputy-president.

Asked if any investigation would be carried out to determine those quarters behind the manifesto, Najib said he would "leave it to the authorities." – Malaysiakini full report here.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Datuk Syed Hamid Albar was reported as saying that police will only investigate Malaysiakini's misleading report on Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak if a report was lodged.

Syed Hamid Albar said this when asked to comment on the Internet news portal which carried the article on Sunday.

The news portal has since apologised to Najib.

Syed Hamid said Malaysiakini's apology was insufficient as it should be accountable for its publication.

"If you keep on putting in false reports and then you apologise, that's not good...I think the media has to be equally responsible for what they are doing," he said. ( The Sun here)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes,it's true.journalist have to be responsible of what they published.Wong (the former Malaysiakini reporter) took a wise decision to quit as soon as her article became the spotlight and realizes the article/manifesto was a mistake and fabricated by a group called "Najib support group".

however the real culprit behind the fabricated manifesto is still at large and none knows for sure who is responsible for it.the manifesto might have been initiated by members of the opposition or even people from the govt side.

Anonymous said...

Hello Tuan Syed Hamid Al-blurry,

Wong has already apologised and resigned, Steven Gan has also apologised for the issue, and Najib himself has accepted the apology and praised the journalist for "showing values of professionalism."

Case closed lah!

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

i agree with eddie.

i don't know what more is expected from malaysiakini. so i'm wondering what syed hamid meant when he said the apology is insufficient.

did he mean that najib should sue malaysiakini?

tsk tsk tsk....

Anonymous said...

Wong Choon Mei did the right thing, took responsibilty for the report and resigned.

Syabas!

Anonymous said...

Lain kali buat lah lagi. Nak siarkan cerita tu tak payah fikirkan kebenarannya. Janji kalau dapat memburukkan golongan2 tertentu sudah. Kan?

ChengHo said...

who is the chief editor? investigate Malaysiakini..