This issue has been discussed a lot.  When the apology was posted, many ex-premies were surprised.  John then made a post to this forum saying that his apology was genuine.   However, John has never retracted any portion of his newspaper article. 

I believe you can do a search of the Forum archives and read John's own posts and all the various reactions.

My personal viewpoint is that John's article was truthful and accurate.  But he made a mistake when he forwarded the stolen Amaroo financial papers to this forum.   The insuing legal battle attracted the attention of a major American television show which wanted to produce an expose.  The stakes were getting high.  John was extremely stressed by his legal and financial losses and there are reports that he was harassed by Elan Vital until he suffered a nervous breakdown.  I think John's apology was a form of self-preservation.