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Singapore tabloid newspaper under fire for ‘tasteless’ front page on MH17 crash

The New Paper cover, pic: Twitter

The New Paper cover, pic: Twitter

Singapore Press Holdings tabloid newspaper The New Paper has come under fire in social media for its cover today, which goes with the headline ‘Uncanny’ to describe the MH17 crash which claimed the lives of 298 people.

The New Paper, which is Singapore’s second-highest circulating daily, comes to the conclusion in its story that the number 7 is the common thread that links the downed MH17 Malaysia Airlines plane with the still-missing MH370 jet, the date on which MH17 crashed – 17 July – and the model of aircraft of both planes, the Boeing 777.

One poster on Twitter wrote: “The New Paper epitomizes everything that’s wrong with state-controlled media in Singapore,” while another said that its coverage was like “rubbing salt into the wounds”.

Another Tweeter described the headline as “tasteless”.

The New Paper's story on Jason Biggs today

The New Paper’s story today

The same newspaper ran a story today that shamed American actor Jason Biggs for tweeting a joke shortly after the news emerged that Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down.

The star of American Pie and Orange is the New Black tweeted, “Anyone buy my Malaysian Airlines frequent flier miles?”, and has since apologised.

The news comes as an Australian insurance company apologised for buying Google keywords for the search “Malaysia Airlines”, meaning that its ads ran above stories about the doomed jet.

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