VIDEO | 1.56 min

Access to Malaysiakini through several Malaysian Internet service providers (ISPs) has been "restricted" since the kick-off of the official campaign period in the May 5 general election.

As a result, readers have been facing a frustrating time accessing Malaysiakini - it's available one minute and not the next, literally (see chart above).

Malaysiakini believes that either the ISPs have been ordered to limit the website's readership or the restriction has been imposed without their knowledge.

However, access through two of the Malaysian ISPs - Time Internet and YES YTL - has not been affected, while international users are also able to get to the site without any restriction.

This appears to be a novel way of stopping Malaysiakini , where previously large scale DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks were launched in the bid to shut down the online news daily. In recent months, Malaysiakini has implemented measures to make its servers more robust and resilent against such attacks.

NONE "We are extremely disappointed with such underhanded tactics," says Malaysiakini chief executive officer Premesh Chandran ( right ).

The Malaysian government has pledged time and again not to censor the Internet, and this is an clear departure from its stated policy, he added.

Premesh called on all ISPs to vet their systems thoroughly to ensure that no illegal restrictions have been implemented.

He said that restrictions to the Malaysiakini domain name could have been put in place by a rogue staff member or a hack into either the ISPs' systems or at a common Internet gateway shared by various ISPs.

'ISPs should stay out of politics'

Malaysiakini is making an official complaint to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on Monday, and it will hand over evidence of the restrictions - the result of an exhaustive investigation by its technology team over the past few days.

"ISPs should stay out of politics and make sure their staff do not follow illegal instructions which undermine the accessibility of their networks. They should also ensure shared gateways are free of tampering and restrictions," said Premesh.

Malaysiakini is currently working on a number of solutions around the restriction. Meanwhile, readers are advised to keep clicking on their browser until they are able to get through to the site.

Readers can test their access to Malaysiakini by comparing access via www.malaysiakini.com and www.mkini.co - a second address made available yesterday. As at 12 noon today, the new address is free of ISP restriction.

Malaysiakini 's readership last week reached over 1.2 million readers and is expected to be even higher closer to polling day on Sunday.

UPDATE: Readers can access Malaysiakini through this alternative URL - https://www.malaysiakini.com . You may need to delete your browser's cache.