Malaysia enforces rule to bar online reporter

Malaysia enforces rule to bar online reporter

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian officials barred a reporter
for an outspoken Internet service from a news conference on
Monday, enforcing a rarely applied rule that only accredited
journalists can cover official events, the service's editor said.

A reporter from malaysiakini.com was told to leave a news
conference given by Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi, according to malaysiakini editor Steven Gan.

Gan said officials, who had previously taken a less strict
approach, said they were following a Home Ministry directive.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has linked Malaysia's
future to mastery of information technology, has promised never
to censor the Internet.

"The ban, which seems to be an underhanded way of censorship,
will not keep us out or stop us from doing our job," Gan told
AFP.

Gan said Malaysiakini applied to the information ministry in
April last year for press credentials but was told these could
not be granted as it did not have a publication license.

The home ministry which issues such licenses for print media
had then told Malaysiakini it did not need a publication license,
Gan said.

Despite the lack of credentials Malaysiakini previously had
little difficulty covering government functions, Gan said.

He said the ban could have been sparked by complaints from
some ministers about "being asked difficult questions."

The apparent crackdown came just three days after it was
reported that malaysiakini had received money from financier
George Soros, an arch enemy of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Soros and Mahathir have kept up verbal sparring match since
the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which Mahathir has partially
blamed on Soro's speculative activities.

Mahathir has called Soros "a moron" and Soros has described
Mahathir's government as "repressive".

The Far Eastern Economic Review said in its latest issue that
the Soros Open Society Foundation supported malaysiakini and
other media and human rights groups in Southeast Asia.

Gan told Reuters that Soros's foundation had given money to a
Bangkok-based journalists' group that funds his paper but that
none of that money was channeled to malaysiakini.

The magazine has since clarified that the Open Society money
went to the journalists' organization -- the South East Asian
Press Alliance -- and not directly to malaysiakini.

But Gan said authorities had seized on the chance to make life
difficult for malaysiakini.

Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung was asked specifically
about malaysiakini when he announced the stricter application of
accreditation rules to local journalists on Sunday.

"If this portal is receiving financial aid from Soros it is
very wrong. What is their position if their service is to the
benefit of the donor organization?" Chor said.

Chor did not return calls from Reuters on Monday.

"It's sort of expected. Some ministers are not happy with our
coverage...partly because of the fact our journalists ask tough
questions and that puts ministers in an embarrassing situation."

Since its launch a year ago, malaysiakini has become an
alternative to Malaysia's mainly pro-government mass media.

In December, Gan received the International Press Freedom
Award from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

He said the paper had faced no government interference,
although some ministers had barred its journalists from events.