Malaysiakini apologises over social media blunder, to meet Umno leaders

 

Malaysiakini apologises over a series of social media blunders yesterday, including one where a caption about the annual general assembly (AGM) was overlaid on a graphic meant for an article on pig farming.

The portal had posted three erroneous graphics on its social media platforms, where the text on the graphics did not match the photo used or the social media caption.

Two of the graphics erroneously reused the headline of a Bahasa Malaysia article about the Umno AGM determining the party’s direction within the government.

One graphic overlaid the headline on an image of pigs at a farm, which was meant for a posting about the Selangor pig farming issue, as evidenced by the caption, which clearly was about pig farming in Tanjung Sepat.

The second graphic that erroneously used the Umno headline was for a post about an opinion piece by an Armed Forces Islamic Services Corp (Kagat) officer about “parti yeye”.

The third erroneous graphic used a headline of PAS criticising Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over an image of DAP adviser Lim Guan Eng.

The graphic was meant for an article about Lim urging Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said to intervene in the case where a rape charge was downgraded to a lesser offence.

All postings have been removed.

Malaysiakini apologises for the error. An internal review has been initiated to ensure the mistake does not happen again.

"This was a most regrettable error, and at Malaysiakini, we believe it is our responsibility to acknowledge and take full ownership of it," Malaysiakini executive editor RK Anand said.

Meeting party leaders

Malaysiakini editors will also be heading to the Umno general assembly on Friday to meet party leaders and apologise.

The portal had contacted Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh last night to apologise and had expressed our intention to apologise to party leaders in person.

This is before Akmal posted a social media video this morning demanding that Malaysiakini make a formal apology at the Umno general assembly.

Malaysiakini had also reached out to Zahid’s office to apologise last night. - Mkini