Some 60 newspaper vendors from Kepong have asked the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) in Kuala Lumpur for help in contacting the authorities to act against alleged intimidation over distribution of the new Chinese daily Oriental Daily News .

SCAH, which received the letter last Saturday, forwarded copies yesterday to the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, Inspector-General of Police, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association, the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia, Selangor Newspaper Vendors' Association and the publishers of two major Chinese dailies, Nanyang Press Holdings and Pemandangan Sinar Sdn Bhd.

The letter is part of a wider protest being organised by these vendors to protect their interest in distributing the new daily. They feel that they are being hindered by rival newspaper groups with ties to the established Chinese media market.

"We are afraid because staff from the other major dailies are keeping an eye on us whenever we're on our rounds. They are intimidating us to make us stop distributing the Oriental Daily ," spokesperson Chow Chee Kong claimed when contacted yesterday.

Chow, a vendor for the past seven years, alleged that he and the others had received repeated "warnings" from Pemandangan Sinar and Nanyang Press employees not to be involved in the distribution of Oriental Daily even before the new paper had hit the street.

Editors in both newspaper groups have refused to comment since last week, despite repeated attempts by malaysiakini to get their side of the story.