KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7 — Utusan Malaysia retracted today an article it ran in June that implied DAP’s Tony Pua to be a racial bigot after the MP sued the Umno-linked newspaper for defamation.

The Malay broadsheet also ran a correction today for the original article titled “Kaduk naik junjung” published on June 30, 2013 by Awang Selamat, the collective pseudonym used by Utusan’s editors.

“Therefore, any statement that can give meaning to Tony Pua being a racist, or belittling the Ramadan celebration or the Muslims in general, was inaccurate,” said Utusan in its correction.

As a condition to settle the suit, both Pua and Utusan had agreed on November 25 to issue clarifications today.

“In relation to my Facebook post of 29.9.2013, I clarify that I did not mean to refer to Utusan as an ‘Umno dog’,” the Petaling Jaya Utara MP wrote on his Facebook page today in return.

According to a report by The Star English-language daily, Pua had on February 11 named the publisher of Mingguan Malaysia, Utusan Melayu, its group editor-in-chief Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak and the editor of Mingguan Malaysia Mohd Zin Mahmud as the defendants.

Pua, who is also DAP’s national secretary, said in the statement of claim that the defendants had published the article containing offending words and implying that he was a bigot, who was prejudiced and intolerant of Muslims and their religious obligation to fast during Ramadan.

The original report claimed that Pua had allegedly suggested for Ramadan bazaars to be closed as they contribute to traffic congestion.

In its defence, Utusan had claimed in court on March this year that the remarks were fair comment, reasonable, fair, and without malice.

Utusan is also currently embroiled in a suit by DAP’s Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang for printing the article, “Kit Siang Manipulasi, Pemilihan CEC” (Kit Siang manipulated the CEC election) in Mingguan Malaysia.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) claimed last year that Utusan’s debt now stands at RM20 million as the paper saw its circulation dropped drastically, from 350,000 to 178,000 a day by December 2012.

It has also suffered for its heavily pro-Malay stance, losing several legal suits filed mostly by opposition PR politicians in recent years over various defamatory articles.