As a former journalist, my heart goes out to the entire editorial team at The Sun newspaper.

I will be among the first to argue that there is no such thing as absolute freedom anywhere and each country be allowed to set perimeters suited to its own peculiar circumstances.

The Sun obviously breached those perimeters with the story of the purported assassination plots and I have no wish to defend its editorial judgement there.

That said, the actions of its management subsequent to the event represent a disgrace and insult to all decent Malaysians. The grovelling apology and the crude witch-hunt perhaps hurt the paper itself more than it hurts anyone. And I am not sure those they were intended to please quite appreciate them that much either.

I can only offer by way of solidarity to the aggrieved journalists an appeal not to be carried away by emotions. Their paper is clearly a lost cause not worth any noisy confrontation which, in any case, is not the smart Malaysian way for any endeavour to prosper.

This episode is perhaps a more extreme case of the road fraught with hidden dangers all journalists travel along. Does it mean the end of the road for press freedom in Malaysia? I do not think so.

Success usually belongs to the good politicians in all fields of human endeavour. The Sun bunch just needs to learn to be better politicians, like everyone else.