English daily The Star today apologised for misquoting Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng during last Sunday’s debate at the 'Malaysian Chinese at the Crossroads' conference in Kuala Lumpur.

The apology reads: “DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng says he did not say: ‘We do not agree the prime minister must always be a Malay because we want the people to decide.’

NONE “ The Star had erroneously attributed the statement to him in a report during his debate with MCA president Chua Soi Lek and also in a commentary by K Baradan yesterday.

“The error in translation and in the commentary headlined ‘All hype but no climax’ is regretted. The Star apologises for the error.”

This is the second consecutive clarification from the daily since Monday.

However, in its first clarification, the daily expressed regret for the error but stopped short of an apology.

The quote was reproduced in the daily’s column on the same day, prompting Lim to flay the daily for its “reluctant” admission and re-demanding an apology.

Meanwhile, Chinese-language daily Sin Chew was also embroiled in the controversy following the debate, with its Facebook page being bombarded by netizens for alleged “bias reporting”.

It, too, has apologised for "misunderstandings" over its reports through its deputy editor-in-chief Tay Tian Yan’s column today.

"To Lim Guan Eng, his party supporters and the readers, we express our apology for the misunderstandings created by our mistake,” Tay said in its column.

A case of Murphy's Law

However, quoting the famous ‘Murphy’s Law’, he stressed that the mistake was not intended.

“This makes me believe the Murphy’s Law, which says ‘anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and it will always happen when it is impossible to go wrong’.”

NONE Tay explained that the daily intended to give a fair coverage of the debate, by giving both the speakers one page coverage each, but it went wrong due to the layout arrangement, which placed Chua’s remarks on page 2, while Lim’s remarks were carried on page 31.

“The initial layout arrangement was to show sincerity, by giving a contrast between left and right, but it resulted with one (speaker’s remarks) at the beginning (of the newspaper) and another (speaker’s remarks) at the end of the paper... which lead to the misunderstandings,” he said.

The daily became the target of attack by netizens for its “biased coverage” of the debate, which gave prominence to Chua in its Sunday’s edition.

In the Sunday edition, the daily gave a general write-up of the Chua-Lim debate on the front page, but in the following pages, including pages 2, 3 and 4, it only highlighted Chua’s and other BN leaders’ speeches.

Lim’s speech was reported only on page 31, the second-last page of the newspaper.

Although it was widely criticised by the netizens as “unfair”, Federal Territory MCA Youth chief Chew Lian Keng today issued a statement in support of the daily, saying that the netizens have acted “irrationally” over the issue.

Related stories

Jessie Ooi decries harassment, vows legal action

Jessie Ooi defends poser to Guan Eng

Ku Nan moots Anwar-Saiful debate instead

Dr M's contradictory take on debates

The time has come for more public debates

Of press prostitutes and cowed media

Confirmed - another MCA-DAP debate in NS

Debate: Politics of thuggery wins the day