The sole bright spot in Malaysian press freedom lies in the Internet which has thus far escaped government control and censorship, said an international media watchdog today.
However, in its 2001 annual report released in New York City, the Committee to Protect Journalists also highlighted the government pressure imposed on malaysiakini .
The pressure, CPJ said, came in the wake of accusations that the news organisations had received funding from a foundation controlled by renowned currency trader George Soros. These accusations were denied by malaysiakini .
Soros was blamed as the catalyst for the 1997 Asian financial crisis by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Mahathir told the nation that loyal Malaysians should stop reading malaysiakini .
Around the same time, malaysiakini reporters were barred from attending government press conferences [as] they did not carry government-issued press cards, said the report titled Attacks on the Press 2001'.
Throughout the year, CPJ added, government officials warned that the news organisation would be prosecuted if its reporting compromised national security .
The prime ministers office also announced that laws were being prepared to require online journalists to observe the same draconian restrictions that impede the rest of the media, said CPJ.
However, no formal action has yet to be taken and government officials have issued statements denying such intentions, declaring that the Internet would be impossible to regulate, it added.
On another Internet endeavour, Radiqradio.com , CPJ said it was a further expansion to Malaysias journalistic horizons when they began broadcasting online in Aug last year to bypass government controls regulating radio licences.
Broadening control
Meanwhile, the media watchdog also took a swipe at the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and its chief Mahathir whom it named as one of the top ten enemies of the press for last year for broadening already tight controls on the press.
This, according to CPJ was done through coercion, ownership changes, verbal bullying and backroom personal moves .
MCA, the second largest component party in BN, was also assailed for dealing a paralysing blow to the Chinese language press through its acquisition of two dailies Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press .
The controversial deal was met with strong opposition from various quarters who were concerned about the editorial independence of the dailies. This also led to a split within the party.
Concerns that the newspapers would lose their independence seemed justified when the senior editorial staff of both papers were dismissed after ownership changed hands...MCAs takeover left only one major Chinese daily [ Sin Chew Jit Poh ] out of government control, said CPJ.
Also stated in the report was the crisis which eclipsed The Sun daily following its Christmas Day report of a plot to kill the countrys top two leaders.
The report which irked Mahathir led to the suspension of several staff and the daily later embarked on a massive retrenchment exercise.
CPJ also highlighted the premiers unhappiness over an unflattering photo published in the now defunct Asiaweek magazine last January.
Jailer of journalists
On the global scale, the media watchdog said a total of 37 journalists were killed worldwide as a direct result of their work last year, a sharp increase from 2000 where 24 were killed.
According to CPJs documentation, after four years of steady decline, the number of journalists in prison jumped nearly 50 percent from 81 in 2000, to 118 in 2001, with more than two-thirds of last years increase coming from little-known crackdowns in Eritrea and Nepal.
China was named as the worlds leading jailer of journalists for the third year in a row, arresting 8 more and ending the year with a total of 35 journalists behind bars.
