The Rupert Murdoch owned top-selling British tabloid The Sun on Thursday mocked its critics who celebrated the apparent disappearance of topless women from the newspaper by bringing back the controversial Page 3 feature, which has long been criticised for being sexist.
The Times, which is also owned by Murdoch, had reported on Tuesday that the tabloid would drop the 44-year-old tradition of featuring Page 3 girls and will no longer "carry an image of a glamour model with bare breasts on that page".
The supposed ending of Page 3 was widely reported and the decision was hailed by critics who had been campaigning against the sexist and offensive images, despite The Sun neither confirming nor denying the report.
However, mocking media reports and the critics, the country's biggest-selling tabloid in its latest edition carried a picture of a topless model winking at the camera under the page three headline "Clarifications and Corrections". It announces Page 3's return with a trail on the front page that reads: "We've had a mammary lapse."
On the page itself, The Sun apologises on behalf of all those who ran the story. "We would like to apologise on behalf of the print and broadcast journalists who have spent the last two days talking and writing about us," it said. The caption to the photograph reads: "Further to recent reports in all other media outlets, we would like to clarify that this is Page 3 and this is a picture of Nicole, 22, from Bournemouth."
Topless Page 3 models were introduced by the tabloid in 1970, less than a year after media tycoon Murdoch bought the title, and it has long been criticised for being sexist and outdated.
In its latest edition, The Times sets the record straight, saying its sister paper had "made a clean breast of it and admitted there's still some nudes to report".
The Sun's topless images have long drawn protests from campaigners, with an online petition against their use attracting more than 215,000 signatures so far.
Campaign group ‘No More Page Three’ was founded in 2012 and has since gained support from a number of MPs and anti-sexism charities.
It had welcomed the news and has not commented on what is being described as a mischievous move by the tabloid.