Deja vu . That is how we in malaysiakini feel each time a police report is made against us. The difference this time is that the salvo came, not from the powers that be, but from a student leader in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).

And as if on cue, Information Ministry parliamentary secretary Zainuddin Maidin unleashed another round of attack against this website. But he has learnt his lessons since his last bout with us. This time he took pains not to identify malaysiakini by name for fear of giving us even more free publicity on the two government TV stations he controls.

Zainuddin reportedly praised the university student, Husnul Hadi Halim, for his "zeal and boldness" in exposing the "lies" by malaysiakini over a "seditious" statement allegedly made by him.

"By exposing the lies, we have been introduced to the website which does not have any credibility," he said.

Someone should tell Zainuddin: If malaysiakini has no credibility, wouldn't it be better for him to leave us alone?

Bogus identity

Last month, a Husnul Hadi, who claimed to be the deputy president of the Universiti Utara Malaysia Student Representative Council, wrote four letters in succession to malaysiakini via the email address 'husnulhadi@hotmail.com'.

The letters criticised the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA), which imposes wide curbs on student activities, and the Internal Security Act (ISA), a law which allows detention without trial and has recently been used to detain two student leaders.

As is often the case, malaysiakini receives more letters than we can publish every day. On June 30, we uploaded one of Husnul's letters, ' Siswa, jangan takut akta universiti ' (Students, don't be afraid of the University Act).

The letter lamented the expulsion of a university student for attending a demonstration against the ISA. It also criticised the government for using the UUCA to punish dissident students and urged them not to fear oppressive laws such as the ISA.

Three days after the letter was uploaded, the real Husnul Hadi Halim - a UUM third-year accounting student - wrote to malaysiakini denying that he was the author.

He said that the Hotmail account registered under his name and used to send the letter published in malaysiakini was not his.

Not good enough

We immediately did what any other responsible media organisation would do. Husnul's letter of denial was uploaded the same day. In addition, news editor Fathi Aris Omar sent an email to Husnul to personally apologise for the error.

Apparently, that was not good enough. Husnul and the UUM student council made a police report against malaysiakini at, yes, 3am on July 5, two days after his letter of denial was published.

We do not blame Husnul for doing so. He and student council president Norhelmi Jamil were questioned by the university authorities soon after the letter appeared. No doubt, when one's future is at stake, even the most hardened student activist would find it difficult to hold on to their convictions.

UUM vice-chancellor Professor Dr Ahmad Fawzi Basri warned yesterday at a press conference - with Husnul and Norhelmi seated beside him - that action could still be taken against the two should police investigations show that they were at fault.

Despite this latest threat, malaysiakini will remain steadfast in our stand.

Our policy of not requiring our letter writers to provide their personal details to us, or anyone else, will stand. And we will continue to strenuously protect the identity of our writers if need be.

We do this because we strongly believe that Malaysians should be allowed to write without fear, especially in these rather dark times.

Out to do harm

But since such a policy has been abused by the unscrupulous, we will now be double-checking those who claim to speak on behalf of any organisation.

We are well aware that there are certain parties out there seeking to do mischief. Clearly, the imposter, whoever he or she is, aimed to do harm to both Husnul and malaysiakini .

It has always been our policy to reject letters ridiculing certain races or religions as well as those considered defamatory. In addition, we will not publish letters that contain personal attacks against private individuals.

Other than that, all Malaysians should be encouraged to express themselves without fear on issues of great importance to us, our country and our children. You may not be given the chance to do so elsewhere. But we will always provide you that opportunity in malaysiakini .

Malaysians should not fear the PPPA (Printing Presses and Publications Act), or the draconian ISA. Indeed, we would like to echo Husnul - the bogus one - who wrote in his letter: If we don't speak up now, then when?