The Sun has apologised for branding a Muslim bus driver a ‘fanatic’and accusing him of kicking passengers off the bus so he could pray.
In a page three apology today, the red-top offers an apology to Londoner Arunas Raulynaitis for its article on the 29 March headlined ‘Everyone off my bus, I need to pray”.
In its apology, the paper admitted it alleged that he: ‘Asked his passengers to leave the bus so he could pray and that passengers later refused to board the bus because they saw a ruck-sack which made them think he might be a fanatic.
It continued: ‘The article included pictures of Mr Raulynaitis praying. We now accept that these allegations were untrue.
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‘Mr Raulynaitis is not a fanatic and he did not ask passengers to leave his bus to allow him to pray. In fact, he was praying during his statutory rest break.
‘We apologise for the embarrassment and distress caused.”
The story was one which was singled out in a report written by Peter Oborne in July for Essex University, and as part of a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, which hit out at “shoddy and soulless conduct on the part of the tabloid press”.
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He accused journalists of fuelling a climate of islamophobia in Britain.
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