Malaysian journalists stage protest

Malaysian journalists stage protest

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Opponents took to the streets Monday to protest the planned takeover of two influential Chinese-language newspapers by allies of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who shrugged off fears of political interference and refused to block the deal.

Nearly 100 reporters, ethnic Chinese activists and opposition leaders demonstrated on Monday outside the headquarters of the China Press daily, waving banners and making speeches to protest against the takeover. Another 60 people demonstrated peacefully at the office of the Nanyang Siang Pau newspaper.

"We strongly object to the takeover,"' said Ding Lee Leong, Nanyang Siang Pau's chief feature writer. "We will continue to show our dissatisfaction until the deal is called off."

The protesters urged Mahathir to block the takeover; he said he will not interfere.

"I neither give my support nor object," Mahathir told reporters on Monday. "Nanyang is a newspaper, anybody can take it."

The Malaysian Chinese Association, Mahathir's biggest partner in the National Front ruling coalition, said last Wednesday that its investment arm Huaren Holdings was buying a controlling stake in media group Nanyang Press Holdings.

Nanyang publishes both China Press and Nanyang Siang Pau, which have a combined circulation of approximately 389,000.

Analysts say the takeover would give the MCA a traditionally elusive inroad into the Chinese-language media.

Critics of the takeover say it will prompt greater government control of the press in Malaysia, where major dailies are already linked to Mahathir's dominant party and local news outlets face strict licensing laws.

MCA President Ling Liong Sik has insisted that his party will not meddle with the newspapers' editorial policy.

"The party was merely advised that the acquisition was a good buy, and so we support it politically," Ling was quoted as saying in Monday's New Straits Times newspaper.

The MCA, the country's second largest political party, already holds a controlling stake in The Star newspaper, the country's best-selling English-language daily with an estimated circulation of about 273,000.

Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the Democratic Action Party, an ethnic Chinese-based opposition group, said the takeover would have far-reaching repercussions for press freedom, human rights and democracy in Malaysia.

In another development, authorities arrested a Malaysian opposition leader on suspicion of sedition on Monday, nearly a week after he gave a speech at a rally aimed at drumming up support against Mahathir.

Plainclothes policemen seized Azman Marjohan, 32, at his home in Teluk Intan district in northern Perak state early Monday, according to Hamdan Taha, deputy youth leader of the opposition National Justice Party.

The move comes seven weeks after authorities arrested ten people, all of whom were linked with the Justice Party, in a crackdown under Malaysia's Internal Security Act, a holdover from British colonial times.

But police told allies of Azman, who is the party's deputy youth chief in Teluk Intan, that he was not being held under the Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

Hamdan said authorities had informed Azman's family that he was being questioned under the Sedition Act for a speech he delivered last Wednesday. He would probably be charged in court within two weeks and would likely be released on bail then, Hamdan said.