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.