'Empty govt counter' post: Harakah pledges to be 'more careful' in reporting

PAS mouthpiece Harakah Daily has pledged to be "more careful" in its reporting after a government department reprimanded it over an article about the civil service.

The portal accepted the criticism "with an open heart" after the Public Service Department (PSD) called out its mistake.

"We thank the PSD for giving feedback on the photo shared by our portal in an article titled ‘Dah jam 9 pagi, seorang pun tiada di kaunter’ (It's 9am, but no one is at the counter).

"Harakah Daily accepts the feedback with an open heart and will be more careful with reporting verified news," the portal said in a statement.

Yesterday, the portal shared a photo of an unmanned government office counter, claiming that it was still without staff after 9am. Government offices typically start operations at 8am.

The photo was lifted from a Facebook group.

The department responded in the comment section of Harakah Daily's Facebook, saying that the image was an old one shared online in 2022 or 2023 but has since been removed.

The image of the unmanned counter was later identified as being in the office of Air Kelantan Sdn Bhd (AKSB), the PAS-led state's water service provider.

On July 24, 2023, Malaysiakini quoted then Kelantan deputy menteri besar Mohd Amar Abdullah saying that a staff member was actually on duty at the time the photo was taken but had gone to the toilet.

"The staff went out to the toilet for a while, and the customer coincidentally came in at the same time, when the counter was empty.

“The staff member's mistake was not putting a notice on the counter," he explained.

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