foreign media

Malaysia raps foreign media over ethnic clashes

KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 (Bernama) - Malaysia's foreign minister Thursday criticised foreign media for their coverage of the ethnic clashes and told locals working for overseas news organisations not to help "destroy the country."
Syed Hamid Albar said it was not wrong for Malaysians to work for the foreign media but they should remain loyal to the country.

"If you quote an unreliable source that is lying or get paid just to belittle the country, this is tantamount to going against human ethics," Syed told a press conference.

"Just because we are employed by the foreign media does not mean we have to follow their agenda, we must have our own principles and should not help foreigners to destroy the country," he said.

Syed Hamid singled out Cable News Network International, saying it had blown the news on what he described as gang clashes out of proportion.

The minister, quoted by Bernama news agency, said some opposition parties did not hesitate to collaborate with the foreign media in belittling the country.

"If there is an opposition gathering, the foreign media will cover the event and say that there is chaos in Malaysia or disunity among the people has reached a serious stage.

"The police have taken the appropriate action by interviewing those (among the opposition party) involved in providing false information to the foreign media and we must ensure such action is curtailed," he added.

The foreign minister asked the foreign media to obtain what he called accurate information from authorised sources without depending entirely on "informed sources" or information from the opposition.

Police said earlier Thursday they were investigating opposition leaders for sedition after the leaders issued a press statement casting doubt on the official death toll of six from the ethnic conflicts.

Four days of clashes between ethnic Indians and Malays in poor districts near Kuala Lumpur broke out on March 8. In terms of deaths they were the worst ethnic clashes since race riots in 1969.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government has for years fiercely criticised the western media for alleged bias and inaccurate reporting and suggested it had an unspecified hidden agenda.

Last month censors at the home ministry began holding up sales of Asiaweek magazine and the Far Eastern Economic Review. No one in the government has been willing to comment on whether an official new policy of curbing the magazines' sales is in force.

Thursday March 15

Review, Asiaweek delay rap on the knuckles: don
Ajinder Kaur

6:42pm, Thu: The Home Affairs Ministry’s continued delay in approving the distribution of Hong Kong-based weeklies Far Eastern Economic Review and Asiaweek since the beginning of this month is a form of punishment for their negative reporting on Malaysia.

Universiti Sains Malaysia communications lecturer Zaharom Nain told malaysiakini that this may be due to the pettiness of those involved in the ministry to make life difficult for the two publications.

“There are two issues here. First, it is the paranoia of the people in power to be doubly sure that the negative reports do not occur again.

“Secondly, it may be the small-mindedness or pettiness of those involved who say, ‘You screwed us up, now we make your life difficult,’” he said when contacted today.

Zaharom added that the reason behind the delay could not be more sinister as the ministry “cannot afford more bad press”.

The two foreign magazines have been plagued with three consecutive delays in the approval for their sale in Malaysia and the ministry has refused to comment on them, much less give reasons for the hold-ups.

The March 8 and 15 copies of Review and March 9 and 16 issues of Asiaweek have not yet been approved for distribution although the magazines usually hit the streets six days before the cover date.

The Home Affairs Ministry had earlier delayed the March 1 and 2 editions of Review and Asiaweek by two and three weeks respectively.

No explanation

A spokesperson for the magazines’ local distributor, Magazine Services (M) Sdn Bhd, said today that the ministry has kept silent about the delays.

She told malaysiakini earlier that the release letters for the sale of the foreign publications are usually given at the beginning of each week after a few copies are submitted for vetting at the end of the week before.

The magazines will then be sold to the public as well as sent to subscribers six days before their cover date.

The March 22 and 23 issues of Review and Asiaweek which should hit the newsstands over the weekend are expected to be handed in to the ministry for censorship tomorrow.

Asiaweek first got into hot soup with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad this year following the publication of an unflattering photo of him in its Jan 26 issue, which Mahathir had said was an attempt to portray him as an ‘idiot’.

The Review and Asiaweek have a readership of 15,000 and 25,000 respectively in Malaysia, one of the biggest markets for both magazines.

Internet versions of the current editions of both magazines are online.

Malaysia turns on foreign media

By MARK BAKER
ASIA EDITOR
SINGAPORE
Monday 19 March 2001

The Malaysian Government is threatening to act against foreign news media and Malaysians working for foreign press in a continuing campaign against critics of the government's performance.

The youth wing of the ruling United Malays National Organisation has filed a police report against several foreign media groups, accusing them of maliciously exaggerating the toll from last week's clashes in Kuala Lumpur, which killed at least six people.

The move could lead to charges of sedition against the International Herald Tribune and Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspapers and the international news agency Agence France-Presse.

Several senior government officials also hit out at the foreign media at the weekend. They warned that action could be taken against Malaysians who worked for foreign news media and did not behave in a "patriotic" manner.

Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin said the foreign media risked losing access to the lucrative Malaysian market if it continued to report in a "biased" manner.

"From a purely business perspective, the international media must see itself as a stakeholder in our economy. It benefits from a prosperous economy. Consequently, it will suffer if there is turmoil or chaos," the official Bernama news agency quoted Mr Daim as saying.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Malaysians working for foreign media had to remain loyal to Malaysia and not become "tools of outside interests".

"Just because we are employed by foreign media does not mean we have to follow their agenda. We must have our own principles and should not help foreigners destroy the country," he said.

The crackdown against the foreign media has resulted in the blocking of recent issues of leading regional news magazines Far Eastern Economic Review and Asiaweek.

Officials claim that the hold-up is due to the magazines' failure to meet administrative requirements. But the government is known to be furious at recent coverage in both magazines of growing opposition within UMNO to the 20-year leadership of Mahathir Mohamad.

Government leaders claim foreign journalists have been colluding with opposition politicians to exaggerate the violence last weekend in a poor neighborhood of Kuala Lumpur, mainly between Malays and Indians.

Officials insist the toll was six dead and about 30 injured. But opposition leaders, quoting hospital and family sources, said at least 12 people were killed in Malaysia's worst inter-communal violence in more than 30 years.

Another 43 people, including five Malay soldiers, were charged on Friday in connection with the clashes. Seventy-five people have now been charged with assault, possession of weapons and unlawful assembly.

Works Minister Samy Vellu has supported speculation that a militant extremist Malay group was behind the attacks.

He said the group had probably chosen the area as a "testing ground" for further attacks. "This is just the first base. In time they will try it again at another place," he told The Star newspaper.

Government blocks international newsmagazines

New York, March 7, 2001 --- The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is troubled by the Malaysian government's decision to block distribution of the international newsmagazines Asiaweek and the Far Eastern Economic Review, both published weekly from Hong Kong.

"The Malaysian government has a history of using bureaucratic restrictions to control the media," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "We are watching very closely to see whether this situation proves to be part of a broader effort to censor the foreign press."

Foreign publications are subject to review by the Control of Publications and Film Division, a department overseen by the Home Ministry.

The March 2 edition of Asiaweek contained an article about radical Islam in Asia that mentioned Malaysian funding networks for militant movements. Slated for distribution on February 24, the issue has yet to secure official clearance.

Meanwhile, Malaysian authorities delayed distribution of the Far Eastern Economic Review's March 1 issue by one week. The magazine, which contained an article about divisions within the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, went on sale on March 3, by which time the following week's edition was ready for distribution.

Both Asiaweek and the Review remained accessible online.

Mahathir, who was named one of CPJ's Top 10 Enemies of the Press in 1999 and 2000, has long had a testy relationship with the foreign media. Tensions came to a head recently when Asiaweek published a series of articles spotlighting various problems facing Malaysia. The January 26 issue featured a photograph that Mahathir claimed was deliberately chosen to make him look like an "idiot."

On February 4, just three days after the prime minister's public rebuke of Asiaweek, the government announced that the Information Ministry and the Foreign Ministry would set up a joint committee to deal with "inaccurate reports about Malaysia appearing in the foreign media," according to the national news agency Bernama.

Most Malaysian media are controlled by allies of the ruling coalition, and the few independent and pro-opposition news organizations that remain face onerous licensing restrictions.

The prime minister has also lashed out at the online newspaper Malaysiakini, a well-regarded source of independent news. For the past several weeks, the pro-government mainstream media have stoked a controversy over Malaysiakini's funding sources, accusing the Internet publication of receiving money from the American financier George Soros, whom Mahathir blames for triggering the Asian economic crisis.

On March 4, the prime minister claimed that people "who love Malaysia would not support Malaysiakini," according to Bernama, and suggested the newspaper staff had "behave[d] like traitors, asking foreigners to harm their own country." Though Malaysiakini furnished a detailed account of its records to prove that it has not accepted any funding from Soros, staff reporters remain barred from covering government functions.

Thursday March 22

Umno Youth lodges police report against foreign media

Zakiah Koya

2:15pm, Thu: updated version Umno Youth today lodged a police report against five foreign media agencies for “implying that the police were trying to hide information from the public with regard to the Taman Medan clashes”.

Umno Youth chief publicity officer Azimi Daim said that the report was lodged at the Dang Wangi police station this morning, and the media named are Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, Paris-based International Herald Tribune, London-based The Times and international wires Agence France Presse and Associated Press.

“The articles in these foreign media quoted the opposition’s statements on the clashes in Taman Medan but did not quote the official sources, such as the police. This gave the impression that the police were trying to hide information from the public. By only quoting the opposition, the public will read that the police are indeed trying to hide information on the clashes,” said Azimi, also an Umno supreme council member.

“The media should refer to the official sources. By not doing so, the public will be confused as to which is the truth and this should not be the case.”

Azimi, who was accompanied by about 30 people, mostly from Umno Youth and its publicity bureau, said that he hopes the police will investigate these foreign media and take the appropriate action.

In his police report, Azimi gave an example of a photo which appeared in an article on The Times website on March 12, which he regarded as irresponsible.

In the article headlined 'Five killed in Malaysia riots' written by James Pringle, a photo of Malay teenagers holding iron pipes and other weapons was captioned, “Malay youths armed with makeshift weapons such as sticks and iron pipes roamed Kuala Lumpur’s suburbs yesterday in search of ethnic Indians”.

Violent clashes

Violent clashes in Petaling Jaya Selatan at Kampung Medan and its vicinity since March 9 resulted in six killed and 52 injured. The clashes were reported to have continued for four days. About 600 police personnel have been stationed at the affected areas to maintain public order.

The police also arrested about 220 people who were believed to be involved in the clashes. Most of them have been charged in court under the 1958 Corrosive and Explosive Substances and Offensive Weapons Act, the 1967 Police Act and the Penal Code.

Last week, the police lodged a report against opposition leaders for claiming that the death toll of the communal clashes in Petaling Selatan could be higher than the figure given by the police. A police report was also said to have been lodged against Internet news website malaysiakini.