The situation of press freedom in Malaysia has not improved with the change of prime ministers, said an international media watchdog.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi appeared to lack either "stature inside Umno or inclination to relax tough controls on media" which were first implemented by his predecessor, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"Abdullah served as home minister for five years under Mahathir and was the official in charge of enforcing the country's press laws.

Within his first few weeks in office, he began to show his stripes when the editor of a major state-controlled newspaper was sacked in what was likely a politically motivated dispute," said the organisation in its report on Malaysia which was released yesterday.

The report referred to the sacking of former New Straits Times editor-in-chief Abdullah Ahmad last November allegedly over an article he wrote criticising Saudi Arabia's handling of Islamic militants which led to a formal protest by the Saudi government.

"After Saudi Arabia formally protested the article, the management committee of the newspaper group, which is chaired by the prime minister, used the article as a pretext for firing the editor.

"However, most observers believe that the editor, a Mahathir appointee, was let go because he had criticised Abdullah publicly and had questioned his staying power as prime minister," said the report.

One bright spot

CPJ said the incident underscored the "tight relationship" between the government and the media in Malaysia through newspaper ownership by Umno, MCA or businessmen allied with the government.

"The editors of major media outlets are political appointees and serve at the pleasure of the nation's rulers. Changes in editorial management are often signs of internal political conflict.

"Journalists are kept in line through a combination of management pressure and threats of prosecution under the tough Internal Security Act. Few mainstream journalists ever step out of line," it added.

The CPJ report, which surveyed actions taken against journalists and the press in 2003, highlighted the police raid on malaysiakini in January in reaction to a complaint by Umno Youth over a letter published on the news website.

"Soon, businesses fearful of government reprisals pulled their advertising and the landlord threatened to evict the company from its offices. An international outcry accompanied the raid, which was widely seen as an act of harassment," it said.

The government had also threatened to file formal charges against the organisation and its editor-in-chief Steven Gan for publishing allegedly seditious material.

Although no action has been taken against malaysiakini to date, CPJ said the government had ignored the organisation's application in late 2002 for permission to publish a weekly newspaper.

"Similarly, a long-standing campaign by some loosely affiliated mainstream journalists to repeal the highly restrictive 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act, which gives the government the power to license and close newspapers, has gone nowhere."

The report said the Internet remains the "one bright spot in the otherwise dreary landscape of curtailed expression in Malaysia"

"So far that remains the case, although conservative elements in the ruling party have

called for greater restrictions on the Internet," it added.

Magazine ban

CPJ also observed that the government's relationship with the foreign press has not improved over the past year.

"During his long tenure, Mahathir has frequently acted as if criticism of his government in the foreign press is an affront to the entire nation. The government routinely attacks foreign

publications verbally, hauls them into court, or bans their distribution," it said.

One incident was over an article published by United Kingdom-based Economist magazine, in which the writer urged Mahathir to step aside gracefully.

The government threatened to ban the magazine although it was subsequently not acted upon.

"Pro-government organizations staged public burnings of the magazine, and Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said, "I think we have to take serious action [on the matter]." In the end, the magazine was not banned," said the report.