Jun 3rd, 2008
Lax editorial standards at Today?
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Uncle Yap took two snapshots of two different versions of the Today newspaper on the arrest of Gopalan Nair. The story essentially remained unchanged but the headline changed.
Of course, Uncle Yap has his own theory about why the headline was changed but I don’t think his conspiracy theory analysis is correct. It seems more likely to me that the night editor was sleeping when he approved the headline for print. The problem with the first headline wasn’t exactly the issue of Gopalan Nair being an American citizen but rather, the problem was the original headline was factually wrong.
Gopalan Nair hasn’t been convicted and jailed. He is merely in police custody as the police conduct their investigations. It just seems to me that whoever wrote the story did not do a proper fact check or confused being in police custody with jailing. Maybe in Singapore, many lines are blurred and people both assume and conflate many things. I remember some time back, a police officer got confused between a political party and a government, saying that both are the same.
I don’t have the physical copy of the second version, though. I would like to see if the later edition had an erratum somewhere in the paper. I can accept honest mistakes but if Today sneakily changed the headline without an erratum, that’s highly unprofessional. The PDF version of the later version is available on the website of the Today newspaper but I did not see the erratum in that version and that is seriously disturbing.
Also, I think Gopalan Nair can sue Today for defamation. He has not been convicted and jailed but the headline stated that he has been jailed. I think the editors at Today should issue an erratum to mitigate the possibility of a defamation lawsuit.
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whatever - if he is held for questioning and cannot leave - he is jailed. No??
Being detained under police custody in a police station is not the
same as being jailed in a prison or detention centre (like the ISD’s
Whitley Road Detention Centre) which is gazetted under the Prisons Act.
A news organisation should have at least some elementary knowledge
of legal matters that may affect its operations and credibility.
I think technically Mr Nair has a strong case to sue TODAY for
defamation or mischief.
In addition, the US Govt may also confront the newspaper’s reporter,
editor and/or owner for redress and/or compensation.
I’m not quite sure if the American government can sue for redress or compensation because the headline really isn’t targeted at the American government. However, I do agree that Gopalan has an extremely strong case to sue because he has not been convicted of wrong doing but the newspaper report said he was jailed, which any reasonable man will infer that he has been convicted and hence was given a jail sentence as punishment. I do not know if the paper knows the severity of this error but they should seriously do something about it and not pretend that nothing has happened.
I always get confuse when State Times carrys news on local politics. Cannot trust them to report truthfully. It always give me the impression that she is trying to convince Singaporeans, if fail, confuse them totally or simply jump to conclusion to side with the Government.
What a sorry state of affair in Singapore.
Hiyoh…
Everything you know in Singapore is false lah.
Full stop.
Seriously, just earn your bloody moolah and shut the fuck up.
You earn your moolah… Economy good. Then don’t complain so much.
All the wayang commentary… For what??
Usually in free press when the editor changes the News title, they usually apologizes on the same day and explained why they change the title.
That’s why Singapress rank 146. near Iraqi standard.