Owning up to our mistakes

ON Wednesday (Oct 21) The Vibes published an article titled “DAP in conflict over working with Umno”.

The article reported on factions within the party that were emerging over discussions of whether or not the DAP should work with Umno in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s effort to take over the leadership of the country from Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who has purportedly lost the support of the majority of MPs in Parliament.

The article quoting sources mentioned several DAP leaders by name as representing either faction or staying neutral. In the writing and editing of this article, aspersions may have been inadvertently cast on the character of several of these individual leaders.

This was neither the intention and no malice was intended and if such was the impression felt, we apologise unequivocally for any hurt or damage that our reporting may have caused.

We have also been made aware that due to the looming party elections, some of the information received may have been compromised or agenda-driven.

Meanwhile, it has also come to our attention that several leaders who were reported as having been contacted for comments were in fact not aware of any attempt to contact them.

Several leaders who were quoted as saying “no comment” to our queries on their stand of whether they will support an alliance with Umno were in fact not asked the question.

We reiterate that no malice was ever intended under any circumstances and in any event we humbly and unequivocally apologise to these individuals if there was any hurt or confusion the article may have caused. 

This is attributed to miscommunication on our part. It was unintended and an honest oversight.

The country is going through a period of uncertainty and the last thing we want to do is add to the confusion. For this, we apologise to our readers. The said article has since been taken down from our site. 

The Vibes which was launched just over a month ago prides itself as being a portal for the people and one that is accurate, fair, unbiased and reports from every side. In this instance, we have fallen short on delivering on our own promise.

I can only assure that we will do better and I hope this message demonstrates that we are a responsible news organisation which owns up to its mistakes and makes itself accountable for erroneous reporting.

We will learn from this experience and ensure these kinds of mistakes are not repeated.

While we demand a high standard of professionalism and integrity from those who hold the public trust, it is only right that we place a higher standard upon ourselves.

The public, and this includes you the reader, who have been supporting us since our inception, deserve better.

Thank you. 

Terence Fernandez 

Managing Editor