Jan 20, 2003 started like just any other day for the staff of Malaysiakini . It was a Monday and the editorial team was busy preparing to cover assignments for the day.

At about 12.30pm, a 10-member police team led by Supt Mohd Kamaruddin Md Din arrived unannounced at the online daily's office at Bangsar Utama.

They said that they were investigating a letter writer - using the pen-name Petrof - whose letter on the controversial special privileges policy for the bumiputeras was published on Jan 9.

Umno Youth had taken offence against the contents of the letter and had lodged a police report on the previous Friday, Jan 17.

Malaysiakini editors, after a 90-minute discussion with the police, told them that the identity of the letter- writer will not be revealed as it was against journalism ethics to reveal the identity of a source.

Following this refusal by the editors to divulge the name of the letter writer, the police then proceeded to raid and seize 19 computers - 15 CPUs and four servers - from Malaysiakini .

Editor-in-Chief Steven Gan had this to say to the reporters on the day after the raid.

"When they asked for the identity of the letter writer, we told them that we as journalists will not breach our professional ethics by revealing our source.

"They said they understood our situation but after much talk and discussion, they decided to take away all our computers anyway.

"I find this an attempt to close us down. There is no reason to take all the computers away. Some of them have no connection at all to the letters," he said.

Amazing support from readers

Malaysiakini CEO Premesh Chandran meanwhile had accused the police of acting unfairly in refusing to discuss any compromise.

"Their action is clearly not to investigate sedition but to disable our operations as the country's independent news provider. We know that this is an election year (2003) and that Umno and the government feel that Malaysiakini is a threat," he had said.

Read more about the raid and the immediate reactions from Gan and Premesh here .

Following the raid, Malaysiakini was left without any computers to work but that did not stop the online publication for long as it was back up within 10 hours of the raid.

Malaysiakini also received overwhelming support in cash and kind from its readers and supporters.

On the night of the raid, a large number of people had turned up the Malaysiakini office and took part in an impromptu candlelight vigil.

"I never thought the police action could create such a lot of sentiments. Within hours of the raid, when Malaysiakini could not even tell its readers about what had happened, more than 200 people had gathered and held a candlelight vigil outside the office," said Gan then.

"We truly appreciate all the support and Malaysiakini cannot do without such support," he stressed.

Also read:

Malaysiakini says thank you to all for their support

Umno Youth: Teach Malaysiakini a lesson

Ministry: Investigation on Malaysiakini completed

Police release two Malaysiakini servers

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