If the government had its way, Harakah would have been slapped with a ban by now. Instead, it was punished with its frequency slashed from eight to two a month. The government knows that an outright ban would invite a backlash. After all, Harakah is backed by the newly minted No. 1 opposition party in the country.

The government, however, did have its way with the privately-financed, bimonthly magazine Detik . Unlike Harakah , Detik does not carry a big stick. And that's the moral of the story. Media which are under the protection of political parties or government cronies will survive, those independently-run face a fate similar to Detik 's.

Indeed, the decision to revoke Detik 's licence is final. There is no legal recourse. The Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 is clear on this: it excludes judicial review of the minister's decision in outlawing publications.

Clearly, investing in the media has always been risky business. Detik former editor-in-chief Ahmad Lutfi Othman should know this better than anyone. He lost some RM380,000 over the past few months when the magazine was in limbo. And that's only a small part of the money that he and his partners have sunk into the magazine.

With this latest crackdown, it is expected that more will join online news websites such as malaysiakini to wage the battle of free speech from cyberspace. Indeed, Detik has already gone cyber. So has Harakah .

True, the government has time and again stressed that it would leave the Internet alone. But with its atrocious track record in clamping down on the traditional media, most are taking this no-censorship pledge with grave reservations.

Moreover, the penetration rate of the Internet is still low. While Malaysia is one of the first to embrace the Net in the region, its adoption has been lukewarm. The total number of Internet users hovers around 1.45 million with 600,000 Internet subscribers. Indeed, only 11 percent of Malaysians have personal computers and only six percent surf the Net.

Simply put, the government has nothing to worry about. Not yet, that is. It will not be surprising, however, if the government now argues that there is indeed freedom of speech because there exist uncensored websites.

That said, there can be no freedom of the press when both print and broadcast media are severely muzzled. Detik is the first casualty of this latest move to silence the media. Possibly to follow are other blacklisted publications - monthly magazine Tamadun and weekly tabloid Esklusif . Their permits are up for renewal next month.

Already, Lutfi thinks al-Wasilah 's fate is sealed. Youth-orientated al-Wasilah 's permit will be reviewed in August, and like its sister publication Detik , it has received a warning letter from the all-powerful Home Ministry. And that's for its inaugural issue.

It is imperative that journalists should be at the forefront in the struggle for press freedom. After all, it is their lifeblood. But the crackdown on the media has since been greeted with stoic silence.

On May 3 last year, World Press Freedom Day, 581 journalists presented an unprecedented petition to Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, calling for an end to publishing restrictions.

"I shall read it," said Abdullah, "I will let you know." Apparently, this is his answer.

But where are the 581 journalists now?

Surely journalists are duty bound to ask questions. If not them, who?

Last Saturday, at the Bar Council's annual general meeting, a resolution was passed by the professional law body calling on the government to remove all restrictions which limit the right to freedom of speech. It also urged that the PPPA - used by the government to keep the media on a short leash - be repealed.

It is pathetic that Malaysian journalists are leaving it to others to speak up for them.