BBC to withdraw from Malaysia

BBC to withdraw from Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia is to seek other sources for its foreign news programs following a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) decision to withdraw its services from yesterday, a leading local newspaper said.

The BBC told the state-run Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) last week that it would stop supplying programs from May 1 because it objected to the editing of a report on neighboring Indonesia.

The New Straits Times quoted Information Ministry parliamentary secretary Fauzi Abdul Rahman as saying that RTM was not in a position to use reports in total because of Asian sensitivities.

"(The) BBC feels if we are to use its programs, we should use them in total," Fauzi said.

"Malaysia has to maintain the good relationship with its neighboring countries. We do not want to jeopardize our valued diplomatic relationship with our neighbor just to satisfy a foreign broadcasting agency," Fauzi was quoted as saying.

RTM would seek similar programs from the Cable News Network (CNN), International Television News (ITN), Africa Vision, Arab Vision and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Corp, Fauzi was quoted as saying.