Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today said the government will not act against the New Straits Times for publishing a controversial cartoon because it had apologised.

Expressing regret over the incident, the premier said as far he is concerned, the issue is settled.

"Since they have made an open apology, with no conditions and admitted what they did had evoked mixed reactions.

"I don't think there is a need for any action," added Abdullah, who is also internal security minister, was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Since the newspaper published its apology on the front-page and did not insert any other news items in that page, this meant it really wanted its readers to know its stand, he added.

"From a legal perspective, it is not related to the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad. That is the issue related to this decision," he explained.

RTM's slip-up

On the allegation that state-owned RTM had screened images of the offensive caricatures during its Mandarin news, Abdullah said: "I have heard about this, let me get the full information."

"I have reminded (the media) not to show the caricature that are insensitive to Muslims. It's not that they could have not read the news about action being taken on other newspapers (over this issue) before this, he added.

The prime minister said the editor should have known about the repercussions and not repeat the mistake.

"After being issued a reminder, such a move was unnecessary," he added.

The government had previously slapped an indefinite suspension, despite two front-paged apologies, on Sarawak Tribune for reproducing the caricatures.

Following this, Chinese newspaper Guangming Daily was also given a two-week suspension for the same offence.