KL not to act against the `Times'

KL not to act against the `Times'

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Kuala Lumpur slammed the British press
yesterday for "discrediting" Malaysia but decided not to act
against a London-based newspaper for implicating a minister in
the disappearance of a US$10,000 Standard Chartered Plc gold
coin.

"We cannot change their (the British newspapers) attitude and
policies and can only hope that they be more responsible and fair
in their reports," Bernama news agency quoted Law Minister Syed
Hamid Albar as saying after the weekly cabinet meeting.

Syed Hamid said the cabinet decided not to take libel action
against the Financial Times for its July 17 report on the missing
coin which had implicated Youth and Sports Minister Ghani Othman.

"The cabinet felt that British newspapers were treating press
freedom as a license to discredit other countries without
considering the effects," he said.