It is understandable that journalists, who write under intense deadline pressure, will commit errors. But whatever the mental and emotional tolls that such a task might exact, it does not exempt the press from cleaning up its mistakes - promptly and fully.

Media organisations are often reticent in printing corrections and clarifications. This is not surprising. After all, they fear it would erode their credibility. Which is why when there is indeed correction, it is done with an eye to see how the minimum of words can be used or written in a way that they would end up still looking good.

The press should have the grace and courtesy to say it was sorry when it made a mistake. We, too, commit errors. Over the past year, we have unfortunately made a number of serious blunders, especially due to a staff that includes several first-time reporters who have little experience.

Nevertheless, when there is a need for correction, we do it immediately and with prominence, and at times even before we were asked. We have run letters from our readers chastising us about our errors, and these letters contained links pointing to the original reports. In addition, we would also insert a correction at the end of the said article.

In one incident, we openly apologised to a student activist for wrongly attributing comments against the university administration made in a press statement to her. We understand that her future was at stake since she could be expelled from campus. Indeed, no one should be penalised because of our mistakes.

We believe that making corrections would enhance, not diminish, our reputation as a credible news source in the long run.

Review's erroneous report

This brings me to the erroneous report by international weekly Far Eastern Economic Review , which named malaysiakini as one of the media organisations in the region to receive funds from infamous financier and currency speculator George Soros.

They were wrong. We had expected the Review to quickly make a correction. Instead, the clarification - not a correction - issued later by its managing editor, Michael Vatikiotis, fell short of a honest retraction.

It said, "In 'Levelling the Playing Field'(Feb 8), we reported that Malaysiakini.com receives support from George Soros' Open Society Foundation. Rather, the Open Society Foundation funds the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance, one source of funding for Malaysiakini.com."

In plain English, it implied that while malaysiakini did not receive funds from Soros as originally asserted by the magazine, we are receiving the funds, yes, indirectly through Seapa.

Wrong again.

The only link Seapa has with Soros' Open Society Institute, which administers funds from the billionaire's foundation, is that the institute pays for the stipend of a Committee to Protect Journalist advisor who works closely with Seapa in monitoring violations of press freedom in Southeast Asia. That money goes nowhere but into the advisor's pocket.

Indeed, Seapa raised funds from its member organisations and a number of international foundations including United Nations agencies for its projects in supporting independent media in the region. This included the provision of a US$100,000 grant to malaysiakini last year, which was made known in every article written about us since we went live over a year ago.

Put simply, Soros does not fund Seapa and malaysiakini does not receive a single sen, either directly or indirectly, from his foundation.

Capitalising on untruth

As expected, the mainstream newspapers, especially the Umno-linked New Straits Times and pro-government TV stations, went to town in casting aspersions on malaysiakini 's perceived link to Soros.

These reports have capitalised on untruth, putting malaysiakini under an undeserved cloud of rumour and suspicion, hatred and contempt through allegations of foreign interventions and harbouring an "unpatriotic" agenda.

The consequences are dire. The enemies of independent press are exploiting this false report to attack malaysiakini . Already the deputy home minister said yesterday that malaysiakini journalists are banned from covering government functions.

There is no doubt that our reputation and credibility as a source of independent news in Malaysia have been severely tarnished. Much of the damage could have been controlled had the Review swiftly made an unmitigated correction. This, unfortunately, was not the case.

Malaysia is one of the largest markets for the Review . No doubt, some of our readers are also Review readers. And they shall be the final judge on this rather bizarre episode of a media organisation falling victim to a false report, and another media organisation which does not have the guts to say: "We were wrong."