Retrenched journalists of The Sun daily today protested outside the office of fledgling multimedia company Nexnews Bhd which had last month proposed to acquire the daily.

The protest was held by the dailys National Union of Journalists (NUJ) branch while Nexnews was having an extraordinary general meeting at its office in Kuala Lumpur to inform its shareholders about the proposed change of auditor.

Some 10 journalists, mostly union officials, distributed flyers to shareholders as they arrived to attend the EGM held at the premises this morning.

The flyers urged the shareholders to exercise their moral and fiduciary duties toward the 50-odd employees who were laid off by The Sun Media Group Corporation Sdn Bhd, publisher of The Sun , in a sudden downsizing operation last year.

The journalists claimed that the dailys management, under new deputy chairperson VK Lingam and executive director Frankie Tay Thiam Siew, has refused to state when the retrenchment benefits and bonus payments will be disbursed.

The journalists also held banners and placards demanding for their payments.

NUJ Sun secretary P Vijian said, I think we have got the message across and I hope those who understand our plight will do something about it.

Barred from entering office

Vijian said since the retrenchment, they have not been able to deal directly with the management which has avoided them.

He added that the laid-off employees are also barred from entering The Sun s headquarters in Petaling Jaya.

They (the management) send people to deliver documents to us at the entrance. We are treated like criminals, Vijian said.

On Jan 22, Nexnews signed three memoranda of understanding (MoUs) to buy the entire stake of Sun Media Corporation and a 70 percent stake in The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd, publisher of business weekly The Edge .

A few days before that, business tycoon Vincent Tan, who owns The Sun , had acquired a 26.15 percent stake in Nexnews from Tong Kooi Ong who also owns The Edge , reducing the latters stake to 26.17 percent.

In June 2000, Tong had proposed to acquire The Sun through The Edge Communications. The deal fell through less than a year later due to what many believe to be political pressure.

According to local business regulations, companies engaged in any form of related party transaction  an issuer entering a deal to acquire, sell, lease, exchange, or dispose of assets of the issuer himself  is required to seek shareholders approval at an EGM.

When approached after Nexnews 20-minute EGM this morning, The Edge managing director Tan Boon Kean said, I have no comment. Wait for proper procedures to be followed.

He also declined to elaborate on how long it would take before the transaction was completed and whether the affected employees of The Sun will get their payment after that.