Daily Times sincerely apologises to all its readers for the regrettable oversight while publishing a Facebook post on these pages yesterday. Our newspaper has always followed a clear policy of maintaining decency, encouraging civil discourse and shunning abusive language. Therefore the editorial slip-up was equally distressing for the DT staffers. We hope that the readers will forgive this lapse.
Noting the changing media landscape, our effort has been to bridge the old and new media divides. It is something that the paper is experimenting with; and like all new ventures there are teething problems. There is also the additional challenge of filtering public posts — and how they are to be reproduced. In that context, we would like to tender an apology to Mr Mohsin Sayeed as well whose otherwise public post directed at a specific audience received a much wider dissemination through these pages. There is a lesson for all of us in the newsroom; and we are not afraid to admit that an error of judgment was made.
After this regrettable episode, we are mindful of the potential pitfalls in handling digital content; our future efforts will be directed at ensuring that such slips do not occur. We assure our readers and supporters of our commitment to seeking a balance between freedom of expression and temperate language.
Published in Daily Times, April 23rd 2018.