KL threatens to ban newspapers

KL threatens to ban newspapers

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): A government minister said yesterday three daily newspapers in Malaysia may be banned unless they stop printing stories that affect racial harmony or relations with neighboring nations.

Declining to name the newspapers, Deputy Home Minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob said the owners were given a final warning recently.

He said their publishing permits would be withdrawn if the reports continue over the next two weeks, the national news agency Bernama reported.

"I advised them to be careful since national peace and harmony depends on racial and religious unity and ties with our neighbors," Bernama quoted him as telling reporters at a gathering of an Indonesian-Malaysian Moslem organization.

Up to one million Indonesians work in labor-short Malaysia, mostly as unskilled workers in the plantation and construction sectors or as maids, frequently blamed, by both officials and the press, for being a major contributing factor to a rise in crime and spreading infectious diseases.