August 29, 10:47 PM 
514 Chai Chee Lane 03-16, Singapore 469029 Sanity and good sense has prevailed.
Lianhe Zaobao journalists and Workers' Party (WP) candidate Daniel Goh had a heart-to-heart talk, a.k.a. "a wonderful conversation" in Goh's words yesterday.
The interview was published in Lianhe Zaobao on Aug. 29.
A bit of context: On Aug. 27 night, WP candidate and National University of Singapore sociologist Daniel Goh had to publicly refute the allegations made in a poison pen letter that accused him of having an affair with a postgraduate student. In a WP press conference a day after, Hougang MP Png Eng Huat urged the media to be responsible and understand that it is difficult for candidates to respond promptly to media queries as they are busy with election campaigning.
So what happened during the meeting between the Lianhe Zaobao journalists and Goh?
After the interview, Goh published the following post, clarifying that it was Lianhe Zaobao that "broke the news".
In his communication with the Zaobao journalist two nights ago, he was given till a certain time to refute the poison pen letter or the story will have to go to print. The story went online some time before the time given to him. However, once he made the public statement to refute the allegations, the other media outlets reported the statement as it became a matter of public interest.
However, he added that "the journalists were personally apologetic" about the incident.
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Posted by Daniel Goh 吴佩松 on Friday, August 28, 2015
Lianhe Zaobao editor Goh Sin Teck said in its article featuring the interview with Goh today:
"Regarding Dr Goh's Facebook post yesterday, we wish to clarify that Lianhe Zaobao contacted him more than once, hoping that he could reply on the matter.
We got Goh's first response around 10pm on Aug. 27, 2015. There were further exchanges between our reporter and him to verify some facts. Our reporter communicated to him that if he had any further comments, it would need to reach us by 11.20pm to meet the print deadline.
A lapse in communication resulted in Zaobao.com publishing the story online based on his first response before 11.20pm.
Recognising the lapse, we immediately published his refutation of the allegation when he provided his final response at 11.15pm. His response was also carried in full in the Aug. 28 print edition."
We thank Dr Goh for proceeding with the scheduled interview, and choosing to believe that there was no malice intended."
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Top photo from Workers' Party Facebook page.
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