China Press today apologised to the MPPP councillors for its report titled "Who sought prostitute? Alleged scandal in councillors’ working visit to Singapore" in its street edition on Sunday, and retracted the article.
"The report had being proven to be untrue after the 23 councillors had openly denied it," the newspaper said.
The report had said a councillor had brought a prostitute back to his hotel room during the working visit between Oct 4 and 7, and that two other councillors went to a nightclub to watch "dances by sexy girls".
The group, which included all the MPPP councillors except Lim Kah Cheng, was led by council secretary Ang Aing Thye on the working visit to learn about management of traffic, hawkers and environment, development control, housing development and urban transformation.
In a joint statement issued by the 23 councillors on Sunday, the group said they could provide an "alibi" that none of them had engaged a prostitute during the visit. They described the report as "vicious" and "unprofessional".
The statement added that the report had lowered the esteem of the councillors in the eyes of the public.
Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) lodged a police report on the matter, asking the police and Interpol to investigate.
