Mahathir blasts Western media

Mahathir blasts Western media

KUALA LUMPUR (DPA): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
on Thursday blasted the foreign media as "racist" and "arrogant"
know-it-alls who should learn how to be humble and fair in their
reporting.

He said he regretted that the foreign media's reporting on
Malaysia was so negative, and hoped the journalists would
"reform" themselves.

"For the European journalists, learn to be humble, stop
assuming that you know better than non-whites about how to run
countries and administer justice," he said when opening a media
conference for developing countries in Shah Alam town, near Kuala
Lumpur.

"Stop being arrogant and assuming that you know everything
because that is far from the truth. Stop being racists," added
Mahathir, in his latest broadside against the Western media.

The 74-year-old premier's government has come under a barrage
of foreign media criticism in the past two years, especially
after the sacking and jailing of his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim
and when Malaysia imposed selective capital controls during the
height of the Asian financial crisis.

Referring to the controls, Mahathir said the foreign media
sided with currency traders and continued to predict Malaysia's
economic ruin, even though the country's economy has fully
recovered.

He accused the foreign media of not bothering to understand
how the controls worked but, instead, were content to criticize
by "parroting something they heard somewhere."

The premier admitted that balanced and fair reporting would
not sell, but said the press had a responsibility to prevent
conflicts and help society.

"But it must not have an agenda of its own. This is because
when it has one, its reporting will be biased and truth will go
out of the window," he added.

The outspoken Mahathir, who has been premier for 19 years, has
previously accused the foreign press and Western governments of
trying to incite unrest against his government.

Most of Malaysia's leading media organizations are pro-
government. All have to apply annually to the government for a
publishing license which can be revoked, as has happened to
several pro-opposition magazines and newspapers.