The Sydney Morning Herald has issued an apology to Georges River Councillor Con Hindi over an article regarding a trip to China he took with a developer Wensheng Liu.
The Herald has previously apologised to Cr Vince Badalati regarding the article.
The apology, printed on page two of the Herald's December 16 edition and also published online, said:
"An article "Councillors referred to watchdog" (Herald, April 2) may have been taken by some readers as suggesting that Georges River Councillor Con Hindi, in voting on matters concerning Hurstville projects being undertaken by developer Wensheng Liu, had acted corruptly or unlawfully, or accepted bribes.
"This was never intended.If any reader understood the article that way, the Herald withdraws any such suggestion and apologies to Councillor Hindi for any damage or hurt caused."
Councillor Hindi said, "The Office of Local Government made it clear that any allegation of misconduct put by the Sydney Morning Herald is to be dealt with under the Council's Code of Conduct which is to be confidential.
"Yet this is where councillors want to play politics at the expense of damaging other councillors' reputation and their families reputation at all costs.
"That matter should have been dealt with under a Code of Conduct or at least in a close session of council.
"This is a relief for me and my family to be able to get an apology from the Herald. This has been a very stressful time and I am glad it is over."