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Is it not obvious that the 154th went to great length and lies to justify what are supposedly apolitical organizations polishing the balls of the FAP during the elections by LYING that Happy Angels working for WP?
[h=2]SPH’s Zaobao finally apologises to independent volunteering group[/h]
June 3rd, 2012 |
Author: Editorial
TR Emeritus (TRE) earlier reported on 26 May that a local independent volunteering group, Happy Angel Seniors Programme (HASP), had lodged a police report against SPH LianHe ZaoBao for allegedly “misrepresenting” the group in its news article and had demanded an apology from ZaoBao, failing which it would seek PM Lee’s “sponsorship” to sue the paper (‘Volunteer welfare group seeks PM Lee’s ’sponsorship’ to sue LianHe ZaoBao?‘).
The report, lodged by its founder Ms Jane Lim, alleged that ZaoBao had “misrepresented” the group insinuating that it is ”co-operating with the Workers’ Party”, which was not the case. The same report also alleged that a certain PA grassroots member had intentionally fed the misleading information to the ZaoBao journalist who wrote the news article and that the journalist had failed to verify the information with HASP.
On 19 May, HASP was distributing groceries to elderly residents at the void deck of Block 2 Hougang Avenue 3. Coincidentally and unknown to the group, PM Lee was also conducting a walkabout with Hougang By-election candidate Mr Desmond Choo in the same area. Both PM Lee and Mr Desmond Choo left shortly after greeting the elderly residents.
On 20 May, ZaoBao then published a news article about HASP co-operating with the Workers’ Party (WP) to “distribute groceries to elderly residents”. This was denied by HASP and Ms Lim confronted the journalist, Mr Chua Eng Wee, who wrote the article. Initially, Mr Chua had refused to furnish any information to Ms Lim, but when pushed further, Mr Chua supposedly informed Ms Lim that “someone within the Grassroots had instructed him to write about this so that they can show to the public that both the People’s Action Party and Workers Party are able to work with each other in harmony and state my event as a Workers Party join organized event [sic].”
Ms Lim and Mr Chua later arrived at an agreement that a “disclaimer” be published by ZaoBao on the following day to clarify the misinformation. However, ZaoBao did not do so. When Ms Lim confronted Mr Chua again, she was informed that the Chief Editor had removed the intended disclaimer.
Furious with the rude u-turn, Ms Lim posted her unhappiness over the incident on PM Lee’s Facebook page, REACH forum and ZaoBao’s forum, but the postings on both the REACH and ZaoBao forum were deleted. She sent emails to REACH and ZaoBao, but did not receive a satisfactory reply.
Subsequently, on 21 May, Ms Lim sent an SMS to Mr Chua demanding for an official apology or legal actions will be taken against ZaoBao. She did not receive any reply from Mr Chua. Finally on 23 May, Ms Lim proceeded to lodge a police report against ZaoBao.
Ms Lim also put up a notice on HASP’s website:
Thanks to Ms Lim’s steadfastness in pursuing the matter, SPH ZaoBao’s misreporting has been revealed and it was “forced” to apologise although it tried to avoid doing so earlier. It then begs the question: how many other articles have been misreported by our mainstream media in the past, which we are not aware of?
[h=2]SPH’s Zaobao finally apologises to independent volunteering group[/h]
The report, lodged by its founder Ms Jane Lim, alleged that ZaoBao had “misrepresented” the group insinuating that it is ”co-operating with the Workers’ Party”, which was not the case. The same report also alleged that a certain PA grassroots member had intentionally fed the misleading information to the ZaoBao journalist who wrote the news article and that the journalist had failed to verify the information with HASP.
On 19 May, HASP was distributing groceries to elderly residents at the void deck of Block 2 Hougang Avenue 3. Coincidentally and unknown to the group, PM Lee was also conducting a walkabout with Hougang By-election candidate Mr Desmond Choo in the same area. Both PM Lee and Mr Desmond Choo left shortly after greeting the elderly residents.
On 20 May, ZaoBao then published a news article about HASP co-operating with the Workers’ Party (WP) to “distribute groceries to elderly residents”. This was denied by HASP and Ms Lim confronted the journalist, Mr Chua Eng Wee, who wrote the article. Initially, Mr Chua had refused to furnish any information to Ms Lim, but when pushed further, Mr Chua supposedly informed Ms Lim that “someone within the Grassroots had instructed him to write about this so that they can show to the public that both the People’s Action Party and Workers Party are able to work with each other in harmony and state my event as a Workers Party join organized event [sic].”
Ms Lim and Mr Chua later arrived at an agreement that a “disclaimer” be published by ZaoBao on the following day to clarify the misinformation. However, ZaoBao did not do so. When Ms Lim confronted Mr Chua again, she was informed that the Chief Editor had removed the intended disclaimer.
Furious with the rude u-turn, Ms Lim posted her unhappiness over the incident on PM Lee’s Facebook page, REACH forum and ZaoBao’s forum, but the postings on both the REACH and ZaoBao forum were deleted. She sent emails to REACH and ZaoBao, but did not receive a satisfactory reply.
Subsequently, on 21 May, Ms Lim sent an SMS to Mr Chua demanding for an official apology or legal actions will be taken against ZaoBao. She did not receive any reply from Mr Chua. Finally on 23 May, Ms Lim proceeded to lodge a police report against ZaoBao.
Ms Lim also put up a notice on HASP’s website:
I wish to state that my volunteering group, Happy Angel Seniors Programme, does not side with any political parties as we are an independent volunteering group and it is unfair that Lianhe Zaobao was able to be influenced by other sources which was not being verified by the actual situation.
I strongly request Lianhe Zaobao to give an apology to this issue and to be publish on the newspaper front page. If not, we will be taking civil action against Lianhe Zaobao and seek sponsorship from PM Lee for the (legal) fees.
Finally, after close to 2 weeks of silence over the matter, SPH ZaoBao’s published an apology about its misreporting over the 20 May article today (3 Jun):I strongly request Lianhe Zaobao to give an apology to this issue and to be publish on the newspaper front page. If not, we will be taking civil action against Lianhe Zaobao and seek sponsorship from PM Lee for the (legal) fees.
