Two days after Sin Chew Daily was accused of plagiarism in at least three editorial articles it published, its editor-in-chief apologised in its print version today and appealed for the readers' sympathy for its editorial writer.

NONE In an article titled "Let him lead a quiet life", editor-in-chief Pook Ah Lek appealed to Internet users not to further criticise the daily's editorial writer Loh Cheng Boon, who assumed responsibility for the plagiarism and has resigned.

It was previously reported that Loh was suffering from depression as a result of mounting work pressure.

Pook claimed Loh still did his best in performing his duties, despite his ailing health, and that the daily had assigned other colleagues to share his workload.

"Our colleagues in the editorial desk face tremendous pressure. The pressures of deadlines for reports rushing in, laying out the pages and printing, as well as pressure from politics and other sides, have put them under strain.

"The more committed they are, the more they suffer from various illnesses due to the heavy pressure," he said.

According to Pook, Loh said before he left the office that he would never again be involved in any work related to writing.

"Hearing this from a person who has extensive knowledge of Chinese Literature, and has been tirelessly writing articles since his university days in Taiwan, filled all his colleagues with mixed feelings.

"Since Loh has taken the responsibility for this incident, we hope netizens will stop adding insult to his injury. Let him lead a quiet life and recover from his illness," Pook said.

'Daily upset, too'

He said the daily was upset over the incident and offered its apology to all readers.

NONE The apology in the print version came a day after Sin Chew , which has the highest circulation among all daily newspapers in the country, published a brief apology notice on its Facebook fan page on Monday.

Many netizens had queried why the apology was not published in the newspaper, in which the plagiarised articles had been published.

The act of plagiarism was first raised by Facebook users who compared a July 7 editorial by Sin Chew Daily with articles published by Taiwanese dailies China Times and United Daily News on May 13 and June 16 respectively.

Photographs of the articles placed side-by-side were widely spread by Malaysian Facebook users to justify the allegations of plagiarism.

After Sin Chew Daily apologised in its Facebook fan page on Monday and announced that a senior writer has resigned over the matter, another editorial article published yesterday was again found to have been plagiarised from articles in Taiwanese dailies.