The Straits Times has made corrections to a report on its online and print versions which had been wrongly attributed to Azman Ujang, chairperson of the Malaysian national news agency, Bernama.

At the bottom of the online version, the following note was added: “In our earlier story, we wrongly attributed to Bernama news agency chairman Azman Ujang, a comment that the Barisan Nasional is expected to face a tough election battle due to public unhappiness over government scandals and cost-of-living issues. We are sorry for the error.”

The same note was also seen on page two of the newspaper under the “What it should have been” column.

The comment had earlier been attributed to Azman who was with former Bernama chairman Kalimullah Hassan (photo) at a discussion on ‘60 Years of Merdeka: Quo Vadis, Malaysia?’ at the Regional Outlook Forum 2018 organised by the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore on Jan 9.

Azman on Wednesday strongly denied the report which quoted him as having said that the BN would face a tough battle in the next general election "due to public unhappiness over government scandals and cost-of-living issues".

In issuing the denial, Azman said he had told the forum that it would be easier for the BN to win this general election compared to the previous two elections.

“I even quoted the findings of a public opinion poll by the Merdeka Centre that the BN is poised to regain the two-thirds majority that it lost in the 2008 and 2013 elections,’’ he said.

The online version was published on Jan 9 with the headline “Ruling coalition BN likely to retain federal power in Malaysian election: Experts” while the printed version was published the next day, entitled “Experts tell forum BN coalition expected to retain power in Malaysia”.

- Bernama