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.