Come Nov 20 this year, Malaysiakini will enjoy an existence of providing independent and balanced news to the public for 10 years.

To commemorate its decade of achievements, the nation's first independent online news portal will kick off a celebration via online, beginning next month.

NONE A variety of interesting activities are also planned, ending with a landmark event - the Malaysiakini 10th Anniversary Dinner (MAD) on Nov 28 at the Sime Darby Convention Centre.

A host of fantastic activities has also been lined up at the dinner, including live entertainment and a lucky draw.

MAD expects to draw a number of the country's influential figures in the political and economical arena. More information on the dinner can be found here .

Co-founder and chief executive officer Premesh Chandran promises a great time at the MAD event.

"We intend to put together a great night and the dinner is chargeable as it also acts as a fundraising event.

"The proceeds will go to our Building Fund as Malaysiakini has been operating in rented office premises all this years. It is only practical to look into buying our own office premises," Chandran said today.

"Subscribers and supporters can look forward to having a great time at the MAD event. It will definitely be a night to cherish and remember," he added.

‘Our unwritten motto'

His partner and editor-in-chief Steven Gan added that the planned celebration was the website's way to thank its readers and supporters for standing by Malaysiakini for the past 10 years.

"Independent media need independent financing - that has always been our unwritten motto over the past 10 years.

"While it is important that Malaysiakini makes an impact in our society, it is even more important that we have diversified sources of income to ensure that we can continue to be independent.

"Thanks mostly to our subscribers who have stood by us all these years Malaysiakini is able to remain non-partisan in our news and views," he said today.

NONE Malaysiakini was launched on Nov 20, 1999 as a free online news portal with only seven staff.

Today the website has 65 people on its team, offering daily news and views in English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil.

The news portal also delivers over 37 million page views and 750,000 video downloads per month to over 1.6 million absolute unique visitors (Google Analytics, August 2008).

As of July 2008, Malaysiakini became the most read news website according to Google.

NONE