THE Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah, says that the story of the Mormons detained in Guyana is now focused on correcting inaccurate first-day media reports emanating from this country. The American newspaper says it received e-mails from several missionaries serving in Guyana, both directly and indirectly through family members, unhappy with Wednesday’s Associated Press report stating that the detained missionaries “could be heard singing ‘We Shall Overcome’ from their cells Wednesday night.”

“Who in the world knows that song? Not us!” wrote one missionary, adding that the late-afternoon singing served as “exercise to beat the heat and the boredom.”

Wrote another: “We did not sing ‘We Shall Overcome,’ but we did sing primary songs and hymns for about two hours to entertain ourselves. We sounded beautiful.”

Contrary to the report the missionaries were never placed in cells, the group was kept together in a large room with a handful of CID employees working at desks at the other end of the room, the Utah newspaper reports.

Perhaps local the local press have not realised that they are dealing with Christians who have no agenda to embarrass the government and therefore are not motivated to exaggerate and sensationalise every story.