'Time' magazine apologises to Malaysian government
'Time' magazine apologises to Malaysian government
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Time magazine apologized to Malaysia for an issue picturing the
nation's flag and Osama bin Laden on the front cover and a
tourism promotion for the country on the back, officials said on
Wednesday.
But a Time spokeswoman said the magazine had only apologized
for running the tourism advertisement in the Feb. 11 issue and
not for the cover story.
The international magazine had also angered the government
when the same issue carried a cover picture of the Malaysian flag
as the backdrop for a pair of crossed automatic rifles.
The apology comes a week after another U.S.-owned news weekly,
the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), apologized to the Thai
government for misunderstandings a story deemed offensive to its
monarchy.
Time is published by a unit of New York-based AOL-Time Warner
Inc, while FEER is a publication of Dow Jones & Co.
Malaysia delayed the distribution of Time magazine in the
country after being angered by its Feb. 11 issue.
The edition's front cover carried an image of bin Laden, the
chief suspect of the September 11 attacks on the United States,
together with a pair of automatic rifles over the Malaysian flag
alongside the headline "Inside Malaysia's Terror Network".
The back cover featured an advertisement promoting tourism in
the country.
Officials said Time had made a mockery of the country.
"The incident has ended, The cabinet is satisfied (with the
apology)," Malaysia's Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister Abdul
Kadir Sheikh Fadzir was quoted as saying by the official Bernama
news agency.
He said Malaysia was 'satisfied' with the apology and will not
take legal action against the publication.
He added that Andrew Butcher, Time's London-based publisher,
had apologized in a letter.
He said Time's Asian editor Karl Taro Greenfeld and regional
marketing manager had also met him and Deputy Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the matter.
"It's alright if someone says it's a mistake and seeks an
apology, we accept it," the minister said.
The cover story described Malaysia as a Southeast Asian
financial planning center for the al Qaeda terror group run by
bin Laden.
"The placement of the ad was a mistake," Azmar Sukandar, the
Hong Kong-based public relations manager for Time Asia, told
Reuters.
The issue came on the heels of other foreign magazine reports
which had painted Malaysia as a safe house for al Qaeda
operatives -- a charge Kuala Lumpur strongly denied.
Last month, the government blocked the distribution of three
international news magazines, including Time, apparently out of
displeasure over their coverage of issues including Islam and
terrorism.
At least four issues of Time, Newsweek and the Far Eastern
Economic Review had been withheld for "inaccurate and untrue
reporting of the situation in Malaysia," said Deputy Home
Minister Chor Chee Heung.
The government, however, denied any crackdown on foreign
publications, with the home minister's press secretary Rohaizad
Abdul Rahim telling AFP the delays in releasing the magazines
could be due to many reasons.