Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia today continued its attacks on Malaysiakini and comments posted by its readers in response to news articles.

 

The latest tirade came in form of a comment piece by Utusan assistant editor Ku Seman Ku Hussain, who claimed that reader comments on Malaysiakini were displayed "low and filthy" mentality.

 

"I don't know Malaysiakini 's demographics, but from the reader comments or reactions to a piece of news, I dare to say that their level of thinking is not just low, but also filthy.

 

"Filthy is synonymous with longkang (drains). And drains are the most suitable to describe the thoughts of a large portion of readers to comment on Malaysiakini .

 

"The question is, why is this forum filled with only one group of people - those who have filthy thoughts and are against the government? Where are the other readers who have better, cleaner and more rational in thoughts?" asked Ku Seman.

 

The author claimed that it was wrong for Malaysiakini to allow its readers to post slander and claimed that this was not "fair journalism" which it claimed Malaysiakini expouses.

 

"Honestly, only quality readers will result in the success of the struggle for media freedom and justice. Readers who are disappointed and blindly anti-establishment will only benefit opportunistic politics.

 

" Malaysiakini may call Utusan government supporters and accuses us of being unfair to the opposition, but they cannot deny that Utusan has quality followers that can evaluate if Utusan is fair or not," he said.

 

Third article

This is the third article in as many days by Utusan 's top editors on Malaysiakini readers and the organisations handling of their comments on articles.

 

Earlier this week, it published a similar article accusing Malaysiakini readers of being part of the so-called Red Bean Army, an apparently fictitious group of cybertroopers being blamed on DAP.

 

It is uncertain what sparked Utusan 's recent tirade against Malaysiakini , but it comes after the latter's readers ridiculing Utusan over Ku Seman's article last Sunday.

 

A week ago, Ku Seman had wrote a comment piece claiming that the CIA had a hand in the 9-11 attacks on the US and thus could have had a hand in the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 to sour Malaysia's ties with China.

 

Ku Seman's claim has been dismissed by acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein today.

Uncharacteristically, Hishammuddin said the Umno-owned paper could print whatever they liked, but their credibility would be at stake should they be wrong.