The Lianhe Wanbao newspaper vs. COVID patient saga continues with the latter hitting back at the paper’s parent company – Singapore’s only newspaper publisher – for denying it had “fabricated” a recent story about his experience.
Patient Quah Zheng Jie, who alleges the Chinese-language daily’s account of his story was inaccurate, responded to Singapore Press Holdings, or SPH, yesterday with a statement listing purported factual errors from the article which he said was “concocted” out of “my actual personal details, details from social media, and fake information.”
Regarding what was written about his family in the article, Quah said: “This information was never posted publicly – I would love to know how he got this information.”
Chinese-language newspaper apologizes to COVID-19 patient for faking interview
SPH did not immediately respond to Coconuts Singapore’s emailed inquiry. The problematic article, NTU Student perplexed at how he contracted COVID virus, was published May 7. The online version has since been taken down.
Quah fired back a day after Lianhe Wanbao editor Han Yong May published an open letter in response to his original complaint. In the letter, she apologized to Quah for wrongly stating its reporter had interviewed him but denied that the article was “fabricated” as he had charged. She said the details were based on information in Quah’s social media posts.
Quah said not everything in the article was based on publicly available information, especially the bits about his family testing negative for COVID-19 and staying home throughout the partial lockdown. Such details, according to Quah, were simply not true as his family wasn’t even tested, and his parents still left home since they worked in sectors deemed essential to operate.
He also pointed out that the central premise of the article, that Quah had contracted the virus despite not leaving home, was based on one social media post wrongly interpreted and taken out of context. It read: “If by the end of the few stories and you still dont get it i got the covid even though i stayed home.”
According to Quah, who had rejected several of the paper’s requests to be interviewed, he only meant that he had avoided “non-essential” trips and otherwise stayed home.
“I wish to clarify this Instastory: when I mentioned getting COVID-19 despite staying at home, ‘staying at home’ meant I stopped non-essential exposure to the outside world in line with the Circuit Breaker rules,” Quah wrote.
Quah has not responded to multiple messages from Coconuts Singapore seeking comment.
In yesterday’s response, Quah said he found the company’s overall response “disappointing,” but also thanked it for taking “swift” action in setting up a disciplinary committee to review the matter.
“I firmly believe that all journalists hold a special place in society. They are entrusted with serving and informing the public with the truth and translating complex matters into understandable terms,” his response read. “Therefore, I hope that fresh journalists (like James) can be supervised more, with additional layers of vetting of their publication drafts. This ensures accuracy of information, allowing the media to fulfil their sacred responsibilities.”
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Chinese-language newspaper apologizes to COVID-19 patient for faking interview
