Dear Adam and all,
For your reference.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Serena
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Umno Youth lodges report against malaysiakini
YS Tong
12:35pm Fri Jan 17th, 2003
Umno Youth today lodged a police report against popular online
daily malaysiakini over a letter which was published on the website on Jan
9.
The movement's information chief Azimi Daim (photo) filed the
complaint at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters at 11.15am,
accompanied by several Umno Youth supporters.
According to the report, the letter titled 'Similarities between
"new Americans" and bumiputera' contained seditious remarks that could
create chaos in the country.
Azimi told a press conference later that the letter, by making
false accusations as well as questioning the Malay special rights, could
instill hatred towards the government in non-Malay Malaysians.
"The letter falsely accused the government of ignoring the
benefits of orang asli (indigenous people) and said allowances and medical
care are only given to those who become Muslims.
"It also implied that Malays are the cause of poverty among
Indians as Malay businessmen were said to have bought plantations for
project development," he said.
Azimi said Malay special rights have been provided for under
Article 153 of the Federal Constitution and should not be questioned.
He said the letter was also malicious for having likened Umno
Youth to the Ku Klux Klan in America "which was ready to kill other races".
Censor offensive materials
Azimi urged the Home Affairs Ministry to monitor closely content
on the Internet and take action against malaysiakini or any other website
that publishes materials which are detrimental to national interests.
He also hoped that news websites and media organisations will be
more responsible when disseminating information.
"If they fail to censor offensive materials which are unfit for
publication, the authorities should then investigate and act on them," he
said.
Malaysiakini editor Steven Gan (photo) said that the online
daily's policy with regard to the letters forum is to encourage free and
open discussion on controversial issues.
"But that does not mean we publish letters without due care. We
exercise a strict selective process in which letters that are considered
personal attacks or those which could possibly breach existing laws are left
out," he said.
"We believe that the said letter did not carry any seditious
remarks that could incite racial violence, but was based on a factual
comparative study."
Today's police report is the third made against malaysiakini
since its launch three years ago.
In March 2001, Selangor police lodged a report against the news
website for quoting the opposition that the death toll from the Petaling
Jaya Selatan racial clashes could be higher than the official count of six.
In July the same year, a university student leader filed a
report claiming that a letter published on malaysiakini bearing his name was
not written by him.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Peake" <ajp@glocom.ac.jp>
To: <communication@wsisasia.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 12:59 PM
Subject: [communication 398] Malaysiakini - reader's letter
> Does anyone have a text of the letter that caused the raid, seizure,
> and eviction order?
>
> I'm a little hesitant about the following, as my memory is terrible
> and I have not notes... But, if I remember correctly, there was a
> presentation from Arfa about Malaysiakini at the Forum
> Asia/WACC/Bread For All workshop in Bangkok last November. In a reply
> to a question about how an independent online press can survive in
> what was essentially repressive environment, I think the reply was
> something like: with honesty, accuracy and editorial integrity.
>
> I'd like to know if the recent situation was caused by a lapse of
> editorial judgement (publishing a letter that was, by any normal,
> international journalistic standards, over the top/libelous), or
> massive overreaction by the Malaysian govt. If the former, that does
> not make the govt's repression an appropriate response, far from it,
> and our letter of protest is fine. If the latter, then I think we
> should be looking to some wider protest, trying to involve
> international advocacy groups, taking it to WSIS and more.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Adam
> --
>