I refer to your report Print media: Leash internet media too .

It was a bit of an irony reading Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow's tirade over what he claims and alleges is the complaint of the mainstream media and that, 'They (the print media) feel there is double standards and that it is not a level playing field'.

To begin I should say that before this I never read or heard of this guy Fu. He would have done better maintaining his 'elegant silence'. But he had to break it to let us all know that he needed to make this statement just to get onto the pages of the print media. He needed to impress somebody and that is the real value of his statement.

But then since he has made this statement, let us look into its veracity.

Firstly, who is it who actually stops the mainstream editors from publishing anything at all? Indeed who is it who stopped the mainstream press from reporting the hundreds of stories carried by malaysiakini over the past six years?

I would strongly suggest that the mainstream media has self-imposed a lot of restraint over what they can publish in order not to have their publishing licenses suspended.

They will not write on the fraud or corruption involving any Umno or BN politician until they get the go ahead from their political masters. Obviously, the sins of their political masters will never be published by them.

Today, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is open game to them. They happily carry out the demonising that is necessary to sustain the present leadership. Until when? What happens if Mahathir succeeds?

The appetite of these mainstream media bosses to brown nose is indeed phenomenal. That is what the mainstream media is doing and it excels in it. Is that what Fu wants?