An article on May 25, 2007, ‘The Cult Guru Who Stole My Son’ made claims that William Van Gordon was a ‘brainwashed zombie’ and Edo Shonin brainwashed him and that the Buddhist retreat which they ran was a cult. We accept this is untrue. We apologise to both men for the contrary impression given. Link
Thanks, @Lucie_M!
New Brunswick’s Telegraph-Journal continues to atone for an erroneous report from earlier in the summer that set of a scandal in Canada. After apologizing to the prime minister, firing its editor, and suspending its publisher (he’s now back with the paper’s parent company), the paper on Saturday apologized to Monsignor Brian Henneberry for fabricating a quote from him in the offending report:
In its troubled report on the communion service at former governor general Roméo LeBlanc’s funeral mass in July, The Telegraph-Journal said prominently, on the front page, that Monsignor Brian Henneberry, a senior Saint John priest, had “demanded” that Prime Minister Stephen Harper explain what he had done with the communion wafer that he had been given. The newspaper has determined that Monsignor Henneberry said no such thing and believes that the false assertion was wholly the product of improper editorial manipulation.
The newspaper has concluded that the sensational manner in which it presented its interview with Monsignor Henneberry resulted in a serious distortion of his actual remarks which were otherwise competently reported. Monsignor Henneberry’s intent was simply to explain Roman Catholic belief and practice in a factual way after The Telegraph-Journal contacted him. It was not to accuse Prime Minister Harper of wrong-doing or to insinuate wrong-doing.
The Telegraph-Journal regrets this breach of journalistic principles and apologizes sincerely to Monsignor Henneberry for it.
The paper is under new editorial leadership and this latest apology could be a result of some form of internal investigation. Yet we still don’t know who decided to push the story into print, who came up with the allegation that the prime minister had pocketed the now-famous wafer, and who engaged in this “improper editorial manipulation.” (I think they mean fabrication, but I’ll just have to guess.)
So, again, who made this call? Former editor Shawna Richer lost her job over the incident, but did she come up with the false accusations and a fabricated quote? We still don’t know. As admirable as it is for the paper to continue to detail problems with the story, it has yet to explain what happened.
Amazing that it can print two apologies, punish two senior executives, and still keep such important details hidden. I’m not the only one to notice. Just read this bang-on comment on the apology (I added the hyperlinks for background):
The apology is welcome, even at this late date, but it magnifies the seriousness of the affront to journalism which was committed in the reporting of the former governor general’s funeral in July. It was really quite an apalling lapse, when all the particulars are added together. So much so that no concerned reader could be satisfied with anything less than a full account of who did what and why (if known). The euphemism “improper editorial manipulation” is simply frustrating, in part because it implies that there is such a thing as proper editorial “manipulation.”
Any hesitation to name names is understandable, but this did not stop the T-J from “outing,” by name, a student reporter who messed up on a few unimportant facts and another who submitted a translated column from a French-language newspaper as her own work. Needless to say, the “improper editorial manipulation” admitted to in today’s apology was a far more egregious offence. Yet we can only guess who was at fault.
Well said.
I initially didn’t post about this story because it struck me as a tale of well-meaning aggregation gone wrong, but it seems that the issue was bigger than that. The bottom line is that the Hartford Courant has apologized for repeatedly and knowingly plagiarizing the work of its competitors.
Here’s an excerpt from a statement by the paper’s publisher:
Throughout our history we have served the community by highlighting wrongdoing and violations of ethics when we find them. It is only right that we focus the same light on ourselves when we are wrong.
So, it’s incumbent upon me as publisher to tell you that we failed to meet our own standards and, as we would with anyone else, we are flagging it, calling it wrong and taking action.
In short, after an extensive internal review, we have determined that over the last several weeks The Courant plagiarized the work of some of our competitors. This was not our intent, but it is in fact what happened. We are taking corrective action to prevent it from happening again. We have also disciplined the individuals involved.
There’s not much detail there, so here’s a nut graf from Editor & Publisher:
Last week, Chris Powell, managing editor of The Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn., complained in a letter to Graziano that the Courant had been “misappropriating on a wholesale basis local stories published in the Journal Inquirer” since late July, according to a Journal Inquirer report. Jeffrey S. Levine, the Courant’s senior vice president and director of content, said the letter prompted the Courant’s review of its aggregation practices.
AP also has some good background. Finally, a blog maintained by former Courant staffers offers additional details, including an internal memo that describes some fairly outrageous behavior (emphasis mine):
It is and has always been our policy to offer proper attribution. Over the last few weeks, The Courant carried several news stories in which the original news source attributions were removed and credit was given to a Courant staffer. This was plagiarism. It happened on our watch. Disciplinary action for those involved, including ourselves, has been taken today. We’ve put procedures in place to insure that these mistakes never happen again.
The site reports that “Six people at the Hartford Courant, including Content Manager Jeff Levine and Editor Naedine Hazell, have been disciplined by Tribune for their role in plagiarizing material from their competitors’ newspapers.”
Thanks to all who sent this in.
*Correction Sept. 15, 2009: The word plagiarism was misspelled as “plagiairsm” in this headline. Thanks to a commenter for spotting this typo. Update Sept. 16: As David pointed out in the comments, my corrected spelling of the word omitted the second “i.” Very sloppy. I apologize.
IN our article "Tennis legend Martina and the Russian beauty" on August 25, we reported that Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova were believed to be engaged after being photographed on holiday in St Tropez, each wearing rings on their left hands. There is no truth in this. The pair are not engaged and have not exchanged rings. We apologise to Ms Navratilova and Ms Lemigova for our error and any embarrassment we may have caused. Link
On Sunday, August, 2, in our article Robin Hood And His Merry Hell In The Pub, we said that Russell Crowe had been banned from, amongst others, the Brickmakers pub in Windlesham, Surrey whilst staying in the area filming a new Robin Hood epic. We have been informed that Mr Crowe has never been to the Brickmakers pub and therefore the incident never took place. We also acknowledge that Mr Crowe has not been banned, ejected or asked to leave any pub in Windlesham, Surrey or anywhere else in the UK during the shooting of Robin Hood. We apologize to Mr Crowe for the embarrassment and stress caused directly by our error. Link
Via Gossip Cop.
In our article, “Annie get your lawyer: Leibovitz sued over $24m loan” (1 August 2009) we quoted an anonymous source who said that Art Capital Group were ‘pretty scary guys, they are predatory lenders’. The article also included a statement from Annie Leibovitz’s publicist that the lawsuit brought by Art Capital Group is part of its continued harassment and attention-getting efforts. We accept that the allegations are false and apologise to Art Capital Group.’ Link
SURREY Police have not blamed gipsies for an attack on their force helicopter, no staff in their operations rooms were threatened by gipsies and no gipsy site was being targeted for a raid as we reported on May 14. We apologise for the mistakes and are happy to set the record straight. Link
Thanks, Telsa!
I thought I’d already posted this remarkable 2005 apology/correction for the Sun (U.K.), but it doesn’t show up in my archives. And since two people sent it to me yesterday, it deserves recognition:
IN an article published on The Sun website on January 27 under the headline ‘Gollum joker killed in live rail horror’ we incorrectly stated that Julian Brooker, 23, of Brighton, was blown 15ft into the air after accidentally touching a live railway line. His parents have asked us to make clear he was not turned into a fireball, was not obsessed with the number 23 and didn’t go drinking on that date every month.
Julian’s mother did not say, during or after the inquest, her son often got on all fours creeping around their house pretending to be Gollum.
Also, quotes from a witness should have been attributed to Gemma Costin not Eva Natasha. We apologise for the distress this has caused Julian’s family and friends. Link
Thanks, Dave and Alex!
From February 8, 2007, the Herald published a number of articles in print and online, including a news blog, concerning Professor Di Yerbury who had served as Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University for more than 19 years to February 2006. Professor Yerbury has alleged that the articles depicted her as dishonestly commingling her private art collection with the University’s own art collection and failing honestly to account for her use of the University’s credit card. The Herald at no time intended to convey any such allegations against Professor Yerbury. If readers understood the articles as in any way reflecting upon her honesty and probity, the Herald withdraws those allegations and apologises for the hurt to Professor Yerbury and any damage to her reputation. Link
Thanks, Steve!
We said Dave’s Plaice, a fish and chip shop owned and run by Mrs Shirley Knox, had been slammed by health inspectors for a series of shocking breaches of food hygiene regulations in their latest report and had exposed the public to a significant health risk.
We said it was filthy, had a stash of dirty equipment and that staff had been caught not wearing the proper clean, protective clothing.
Although some minor infractions of the rules had been found in an inspection report carried out nine months before our article was published, in fact there had been no serious breaches.
The recommendations of the inspectors were also quickly implemented. A further report had been carried out six weeks before our article was published in which inspectors gave the shop a clean bill of health.
We apologise sincerely to Mrs Knox for the distress caused by our inaccurate and exaggerated report. Link
On the Letters Page of the Irish Independent on Thursday, July 23 last, a picture was used featuring a girl walking in a forest. This was a photograph entitled ‘Girl in Forest’ from the exhibition ‘No Directions’ by Anthony Byrne in the Back Loft gallery last March. We apologise to Mr Byrne for the unauthorised use of the photograph and acknowledge that he holds all copyright and licensing for it.
IN an article on 3 February 2008 headlined "Evil on benefits" we described Shakil Akhtar as the "treasurer" of a militant Islamic cell responsible for funding terrorism. Mr Akhtar is not involved in the funding of terrorism or a member of a militant cell and we apologise to him for the embarrassment and distress caused by our article.
From Reuters:
South African President Jacob Zuma accepted "very substantial damages" from Britain’s Guardian newspaper over an article that wrongly suggested he was a rapist, his lawyers said on Thursday.
The March article, headlined "Get used to a corrupt and chaotic South Africa. But don’t write it off" also alleged Zuma was guilty of corruption and bribery arising out of his involvement in a $5 billion arms deal.
His lawyer Jenny Afia told London’s High Court the allegations were "of the utmost seriousness and totally untrue."
After the settlement Zuma issued a statement in which he said: "What was said was extremely serious, not just for me but for the ANC."
He said he had fought for press freedom all his life, but "we had to take action in this matter because the publication crossed the line."
"Media around the world are obliged to exercise their freedom of speech in a responsible manner," he added.
After libel proceedings began in March, the newspaper published an apology, in which it said the allegation of rape was "included due to an editing error." …
You can read the paper’s apology here.
Today the Telegraph-Journal in New Brunswick issued a remarkable front page apology for a report that became a national controversy in Canada.
In early July, the paper reported that Prime Minister Stephen Harper had pocketed the communion wafer given to him by a Roman Catholic priest at the funeral of former Governor-General Romeo LeBlanc. That report sparked an onslaught of other stories, eventually forcing the PM’s spokesman to issue a formal denial.
Today’s apology states that the allegation was inserted by an editor "without the knowledge of the reporters and without any credible support…" It does not state whether or not the editor in question deliberately fabricated the wafer incident or if he/she was passing on gossip. Either way, this is a huge embarrassment and a totally unacceptable course of events. It’s all the more notable because the paper in question was in the spotlight earlier this summer after it fired an intern for questionable reasons. Details on that are below. Here’s the apology:
On Wednesday, July 8, 2009, the Telegraph-Journal published a story about the funeral mass celebrating the life of former Governor-General Romeo LeBlanc that was inaccurate and should not have been published. We pride ourselves in maintaining high standards of journalism and ethical reporting, and regret this was not followed in this case.
The story stated that a senior Roman Catholic priest in New Brunswick had demanded that the Prime Minister’s Office explain what happened to the communion wafer which was handed to Prime Minister Harper during the celebration of communion at the funeral mass. The story also said that during the communion celebration, the Prime Minister "slipped the thin wafer that Catholics call ‘the host’ into his jacket pocket".
There was no credible support for these statements of fact at the time this article was published, nor is the Telegraph-Journal aware of any credible support for these statements now. Our reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras, who wrote the story reporting on the funeral, did not include these statements in the version of the story that they wrote. In the editing process, these statements were added without the knowledge of the reporters and without any credible support for them.
The Telegraph-Journal sincerely apologizes to the Prime Minister for the harm that this inaccurate story has caused. We also apologize to reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras and to our readers for our failure to meet our own standards of responsible journalism and accuracy in reporting.
So has the editor in question been fired? That’s an important query given not only the seriousness of this incident, but also because the paper’s actions earlier this summer require it to take a hard line with inaccuracy. I wrote a column about the paper’s firing of a summer intern named Matt McCann after he made factual errors in a story that may have made things uncomfortable for the paper’s owners, the wealthy Irving family.
The paper said McCann’s errors and the alleged lack of balance in his story were not up to its standards. So they fired him. (I don’t support their decision.) Now this. So will the editor in chief — who defended her decision to fire the student — step down for this major lapse on her watch? Ed: See update 3 below It would seem that’s a fair course of action considering the standard it set by firing McCann. As noted above, the apology also doesn’t detail whether the offending editor has been fired. Given the paper’s recent history, it should be more forthcoming about the consequences of this unprecedented incident.
UPDATE: Not long after publishing this post, I heard from a few sources that the editor and publisher’s names were not listed on the paper’s masthead in today’s edition. Dan McHardie noted this on Twitter, and I confirmed it with two other people. The paper hasn’t issued any formal statement so it’s too early to know if the absence of their names carries real significance. I’ll keep an eye on it.
UPDATE 2: I’d love to get your thoughts via email (editor at regrettheerror.com) or in the comments of this post: what’s the proper protocol for an editor when adding new information to a story? Should they always tell the reporter? Does it depend on the information? And for reporters: give me your best stories about having errors inserted into your work. (Don’t worry, I’m not looking to go after copy editors, but we all know this happens.) I’m hoping to use some thoughts and anecdotes for my Friday Columbia Journalism Review Column.
UPDATE 3: CBC reports that the editor and publisher are gone:
The publisher and editor of the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal are no longer with the paper after it was forced to apologize to Stephen Harper and two of its own reporters over a story about whether the prime minister took communion at the state funeral of former governor general Roméo LeBlanc.
CBC News has confirmed that editor Shawna Richer has been fired and that Jamie Irving is no longer the publisher of the paper. Earlier, their names had been removed from the paper’s list of senior staff.
Some excerpts from my Columbia Journalism Review column:
Matt McCann wasn’t supposed to spend his summer working for St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
For the second year in a row, McCann, a journalism student at St. Thomas, had landed a summer internship at the Telegraph-Journal. But that ended abruptly in May when he was fired a day after the paper published a story of his on the front page.
McCann’s article reported that roughly 100 faculty and staff from the University of New Brunswick had signed a letter protesting the school’s decision to award Premier Shawn Graham an honorary degree. After it was published, representatives from the university called the paper’s publisher and editor to talk about the article.
“We were really looking to elaborate our position,” UNB communications manager Dan Tanaka told the Toronto Star. “We felt we were given a minor mention at the bottom of the story.”
Apart from that gripe, the story contained three factual errors. McCann misspelled a person’s last name (“Stropel” instead of “Strople”) and title (“university secretary for UNB Fredericton” instead of “university secretary for UNB”). He also reported that the premier has an education degree from UNB—when, in fact, he has a physical education degree.
The errors were easily preventable and should not have appeared in the story. As far as them being a firing offense, however, I’ve never heard of anyone being let go for mistakes of this nature. Far more experienced journalists have repeatedly made worse mistakes and kept their jobs. Certainly that’s nothing to be proud of, but the Telegraph-Journal held McCann to a standard that other staffers can’t possibly meet…
Shawna Richer, the paper’s editor, has faced criticism for her decision to fire McCann. She insists the factual mistakes combined with the one-sided nature of the story to make it a deal breaker. Yet even the university spokesman told the Star that he was “surprised” to hear McCann was let go. In spite of their concerns, they didn’t ask for him to lose his job. (Read the story for yourself and decide if it’s so lacking in fairness and balance that the author deserves to be drummed out of a summer contract.)
The story of McCann’s firing eventually made its way to local radio in Saint John. During the report, a former editor of the paper in question suggested that the publisher, Jamie Irving, made McCann the scapegoat in order to maintain good relations with the governing party. That suggestion caused the Telegraph-Journal to respond with a story headlined, “CBC runs baseless story with no regard for facts or truth.”
From the story, which doesn’t match the aggressive tone of the headline:
“These kinds of errors of fact and judgment don’t constitute acceptable journalism at the Telegraph-Journal. We must cover stories with integrity, clarity and absolute accuracy,” Shawna Richer, the newspaper’s editor, said.
In a conversation that day with Richer, McCann acknowledged the errors but “did not seem to fully grasp the seriousness of them,” Richer said. “He was not a first-year intern. He worked here last summer. We expected more of him.”
Richer says the call was hers alone and no one pressured her. The paper has also acknowledged that McCann’s story was, obviously, reviewed by editors. After all, they deemed it good enough to warrant major front page placement. Those editors have all kept their jobs.
But if we accept Richer’s standard for fairness and accuracy, then I’m afraid to say that someone else at her paper needs to lose their job. If you read the online version of the article, you’ll notice that McCann’s three factual errors—which were deemed so bad that they were a major cause of his firing—are still in the article. The paper hasn’t corrected them. Those errors are still causing damage, and it was someone’s job to fix them in the online version, not to mention issue a correction.
So who else is going to lose their job? Or is it possible that the standard being enforced by the paper doesn’t apply to anyone but McCann?
ON February 20, 2009, The Daily Telegraph published an article which referred to John Coughlan, the former CEO of the Greyhound and Harness Racing Regulatory Authority.
The article reported the outcome of a decision by the Industrial Relations Commission dealing with a complaint by a GHRRA employee and in particular referred to a finding made by the Commission against Mr Coughlan. The Daily Telegraph now accepts the statements in the article referring to Mr Coughlan were false and that no such findings were made against him by the Industrial Relations Commission.
We unreservedly withdraw all allegations either express or implied in the article and sincerely apologise to Mr Coughlan for any hurt and embarrassment caused by the article.
A STORY published last Sunday (`Pick a fight with me’) attributed quotes to North Queensland’s Carl Webb in an article relating to a possible boxing match against NSW prop Brett White.
The quotes were passed on to The Sunday Telegraph and published in good faith.
Unfortunately, Webb was not informed about the story and never said he wanted to fight Brett White or any other player.
The Sunday Telegraph apologises for any embarrassment caused to Carl Webb and the North Queensland Cowboys.
A report from the Guardian:
The trade magazine Nursery Management Today could face a claim for damages after publishing a picture of the wrong nursery to illustrate a story about an investigation into child abuse.
The July/August edition of the title, owned by Hawker Publications, included a picture of the wrong nursery – in which the nursery’s telephone number was clearly visible – with a page five story headlined "Nursery as centre of child abuse investigation".
The article referred to the Little Ted’s day nursery in Laira, Plymouth. However, the picture incorrectly published with the story was of the Little Ted’s day nursery in Rugby, Warwickshire.
When contacted by MediaGuardian.co.uk, the editor of Nursery Management Today, Alison Gordon, said: "Someone has made a very silly mistake – it would be unfair to name them but as editor I can assure you we will make it very, very clear in our next issue that a picture of the wrong Little Ted’s was used. Our apologies go out to Little Ted’s in Rugby.
"I am absolutely appalled by the mistake and have asked him to prepare an apology forthwith for the next publication."
On its website, Nursery Management Today has now published the following "important correction": "On Page 5 of the July/August issue of NMT magazine a picture of Little Ted’s Day Nursery in Rugby was accidentally used instead of the intended picture of Little Ted’s Day Nursery in Laira, Plymouth.
"NMT would like to confirm that the content of the accompanying article and the caption for the picture were correct. NMT magazine would like to apologise to Little Ted’s Day Nursery in Rugby for any unintended confusion this mistake may have caused."…
FURTHER to our preview of last night’s game published in Thursday July 9th edition, we wish to clarify that Ian Bermingham did not give the quote attributed to him. The level of wages stated in the headline for Mr Bermingham was inaccurate. We regret any distress caused and accept that Mr Bermingham had declined to discuss with us the level of his wages with Shamrock Rovers.
From the original article:
I only earn £300 a week but I’ll still stop Cristiano
THE first player to mark Cristiano Ronaldo following his £80million move to Real Madrid is on £300 a week and still lives at home with his mum.
Ronaldo and Bermingham come face to face when Real visit Rovers’ tiny Tallaght Stadium in Dublin on July 20.
Tickets for the friendly sold out in two hours and pals of the defender reckon it could be the game that makes HIS name.
But not for his fantastic play – for nobbling the Portuguese wing whiz on his debut for Real’s new crop of Galacticos.
Since landing the toughest job in football the Irishman’s email inbox has been overloaded with cruel suggestions.
Bermingham said: "A lot of people seem to think if I really hammer Ronaldo it will put my name all around the world and I would be some kind of a hero. But, no – I could never, ever think like that.
"As long as I can catch him he’ll know I’m there, but I want to swap shirts with him so it’s better that he’s still standing at the end of the game!" …
ON June 18, 2009 The Australian published a story, `MYOB tsar link to investor scam’. Readers may have inferred that Mr Bradley Shofer was linked to an investor scam whereby South African investors lost up to $1.5billion.
The Australian accepts that Frankel International (Australia) was not a local arm of the South African company of the same name, that it did not raise any funds or trade while Mr Shofer was a director nor did he receive any financial benefit from it. The Australian apologises unreservedly for any embarrassment or hurt to feelings suffered by Mr Shofer as a result of the story’s publication.
Rupert Lowe: Our report, Southampton down to their nails as more anguish looms (27 April, page 9, Sport) wrongly suggested that the Football Association was conducting an investigation into where a reported £40m had gone missing when Mr Lowe was chairman of Southampton FC. In fact there was no missing money nor any FA investigation. We apologise unreservedly to Mr Lowe for this error. Link
Our report "Jools Holland’s castle joins band of at-risk monuments" (June 23) referred to Saltwood Castle in Kent and its owner Jane Clark, who has succeeded in having Saltwood removed from English Heritage’s at-risk register. The information and quotes about Saltwood were taken from an article by Robin Stummer in the latest edition of Cornerstone, the magazine of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, but that attribution was cut from our reporter’s original copy in the editing process. We apologise for the error and for any embarrassment it has caused.
*Correction July 21: The word plagiarism was misspelled in the original version of this headline. Thanks, Charlene!
ON February 20, 2009, The Courier-Mail reported details of an assault claim brought against St John Ambulance which concerned first aid allegedly provided at a surf carnival at Lorne, Victoria, in February 2006.
The article may have been interpreted as suggesting as fact that it was St John Ambulance officers who had performed the first aid, rather than merely stating that this is what was alleged in the statement of claim.
We have since been provided with evidence that confirms St John Ambulance was not in fact in attendance at the surf carnival in question and that no St John Ambulance first aid officers provided first aid to the alleged victim.
We apologise to St John Ambulance for any distress or embarrassment caused by publication of the article. Any error was made by the reporter.
We acknowledge that St John Ambulance Australia is a self-funding charitable organisation that provides vital services to the community, helping people in sickness, distress, suffering or danger.
St John Ambulance provides about 1.4 million hours of voluntary service to Australian communities each year, treating about 86,000 casualties.
The 10,000 first aid volunteers and other St John Ambulance officers are highly skilled and extremely well qualified for the provision of medical services they provide.
Australia’s Daily Telegraph published the same apology.
In an article published on 1st January 2009 entitled "Bank closes account of charity linked to Hamas", we suggested that the Bolton-based charity Ummah Welfare Trust may have indirectly helped to fund Hamas, which has been branded as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the USA and the EU.
It was not our intention to make such an allegation and we accept that there are no grounds upon which to suggest that the charity or any of its trustees has caused or permitted its funds to be used to aid the cause of terrorism in any way.
The Bolton News is happy to put the record straight and apologises unreservedly to Ummah Welfare trust and to its trustees: Mohammed Idris, Zaker Patel, Iqbal Rawat, Muhammad Ahmad Seedat and Idris Atcha.
The Sunday Times wishes to correct a number of inaccuracies in an article dealing with the Press Council last Sunday. The headline stating "Press Council attacks papers" was incorrect, and the statement that the chairman, Professor Tom Mitchell, had criticised two newspapers for not publishing decisions against them was also incorrect. There is no "stand-off" with any newspaper, as reported.
We apologise for this lapse in reporting and have taken steps to ensure that it does not happen again.
ON 11 April, 2008, in a report of a meeting of the Donegal Irish Farmers’ Association, addressed by Garda Sgt Paul Wallace on the subject of farm security published, we wrongly stated that Garda Wallace had commended Mayo farmer Padraig Nally for the way in which he defended his property.
We accept that we mistook the context in which Garda Wallace said that the farmer "did everyone a service".
Both Garda Wallace and the IFA have assured us that his remark was in reference to the farmer having successfully appealed his conviction and thus clarified the law.
By contrast, he did say, and we reported, that farmers should not take the law into their own hands.
He did not and would not condone the killing of an intruder.
We apologise to Garda Wallace for the embarrassment our report caused him.
