The Sunday Times has brought it to the South African Press Association’s (Sapa) attention that pages were not pulled off copies of the newspaper distributed to the public late on Saturday night.
This after Sapa reported that: ”Early editions were distributed with page three at the front of the paper, missing the wrap-around of pages one, two, 11 and 12.”
Sunday Times general manager of operations Clifford Fram said pages were physically removed from only those six copies of the newspaper supplied to Sapa on Saturday night.
He said advertisers were under the impression their advertisements had not reached their markets, when this was not the case.
He said that while every effort was made to recall papers that went through while a court case linked to the aborted story was in progress, some might have ”leaked” out to the public.
At least one copy carrying the article was obtained in Sandton at noon on Sunday.
According to an article in replacement copies of the Sunday Times, publication of the original story was prevented because it contravened the Divorce Act.
The interim order prevented the newspaper from identifying the parties in the story and explaining why the interdict was granted.
The replacement copy carried a lead story on the government’s launch of a campaign to change the world’s perception that South Africa was losing the war on crime. — Sapa