Last week I mentioned that Jake van der Kamp had been caught out by an April Fool .

He was big enough to apologize for this the next day, and not just as a footnote but in the headline and first few paragraphs of his column.

Yet if you go to the SCMP website you will find that the original column is still there with no mention that it is nonsense, and the following days' column with the apology is not there (because it was published on a public holiday).

Serious newspapers ensure that if they make an error they correct it, either by withdrawing the article or by adding a prominent note to explain the error.