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Malaysiakini.com
Chinese daily spikes critical column
Beh Lih Yi
Nov 10, 04 12:26pm

Chinese-language daily Oriental Daily News has axed a column that has been critical of government policies, after a contribution published last Saturday focused on current controls over the print media.

The daily column, which translates as ‘East Wind Blows’, has to date featured the contributions of several journalists working for the newspaper. Among issues covered were the problems faced by the Works Ministry, as well as media-related issues.

The last article - based on the restrictive Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA) - apparently caused a nervous reaction in the newsroom and led to the column being terminated, said sources.

It criticised administrative and political intervention in approval of the annual licence that all publishers and owners of printing presses are required to obtain to carry on operating.

Under the PPPA, the power to grant, renew and revoke permit lies with the Internal Security Ministry.

Media controls

The final column, entitled ‘Strengthen civil society, counter hegemony’, criticised the administration for still controlling the media tightly, in spite of claiming to have entered a new era.

It cited, as an example, the application by online daily malaysiakini for a print licence - which has yet to be approved after more than two years - to argue that the administration “was still leading in weakening the ‘counter hegemony’ forces”.

The writer, it is learnt, was asked by editors to explain the reference to malaysiakini’s application status, because he had written that the application “was not approved”.

In June, the Internal Security Ministry strongly hinted in a parliamentary reply that it would not approve the application, but also said the matter was still under consideration.

The minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi - also the prime minister - expressed the fear that a print version of malaysiakini would be “prejudicial and jeopardise national security and public order”.

No instruction

Asked to comment, two senior editors of Oriental Daily News denied that the decision to remove the column was prompted by instructions from the Internal Security Ministry. Both refused to be named.

“It was merely an internal adjustment, we want to revamp the contents,” one editor said.

He said the adjustment would involve other changes to editorial content, but did not elaborate or say what would replace the column that has been removed.

The other editor hinted that the column could be continued, but with a different name.

Meanwhile, editor-in-chief Puah You Lai said in his column last Saturday that the editorial team has come under pressure from readers recently for refusing to publish articles by columnists Phoon Wing Keong and Josh Hong.

Puah explained that the newspaper was obliged to take into consideration various requirements including “social responsibility, legal issues and external pressures”.

Phoon told a forum recently that his articles were not published after he criticised the MCA’s role in Barisan Nasional and the MCA’s latest campaign, the lifelong learning programme.

Timber tycoon

Oriental Daily News, owned by Sarawakian timber tycoon Lau Hui Kang’s KTS group was launched on Sept 29, 2002, but its operations were suspended the same evening.

It hit the streets again on Jan 1, 2003 after nearly three months of negotiations with the government.

The paper has alleged there were initial attempts to block its circulation by four other major Chinese dailies in the market. Its opinion page was removed early last year, but it resumed shortly after.

Among the journalists and columnists who are contriubuting to the newspaper are those who have supported a boycott of other Chinese dailies, following MCA’s controversial acquisition of Nanyang Press Holdings in May 2001.