A New Zealand organization focusing Asian community demanded Monday the North & South magazine for an apology for an article on Asian crime that the Press Council found inaccurate.

Philip Burdon, chairman of The Asia: New Zealand Foundation, said nothing short of a printed apology for a deliberately alarmist and hostile article about Asian communities in New Zealand would be acceptable from the magazine.

A Press Council decision released Monday upheld complaints made against the magazine's December cover story by journalist Deborah Coddington titled Asian Angst: Is It Time to Send Some Back?

The Press Council ruled North & South had failed to meet its obligation in regards to accuracy and discrimination by publishing the article.

The Asia: New Zealand Foundation -- an organization dedicated to building New Zealand links with Asia -- was one of the three complainants.

Burdon welcomed Press Council condemnation, saying there is incipient racism in New Zealand toward people of Asian ethnicity and for a publication of this authority to give it comfort and to perpetuate negative stereotypes about Asian New Zealanders in this way is completely unacceptable.

He said the article was a transparent and repugnant attempt to exploit xenophobic fears about migrants from Asian countries.

"The article was clearly wrong on so many levels. The rhetoric was subjective and hostile, and depicted Asians as outsiders without common human traits while the selective use of statistics was indefensible," said Burdon.

Source: Xinhua