State-owned RTM is free from political meddling when it comes to making decisions on shows for any of its channels, declared director-general of broadcasting Ibrahim Yahaya.

He said this today in rebutting producer Chou Z Lam's charge that RTM had pulled out his series on the Bakun Dam because of its possible impact on the Sibu parliamentary by-election.

Instead, Ibrahim said that the director of the current news affairs had merely asked Chou to make his editing more "compact".

"(Chou) did not want to and instead asked for a written directive. It is RTM practice to give verbal orders in its daily operations without having to put them in writing," he said.

flash mob read newspaper upside down 020510 chou z lam Chou, ( left ) a producer of nine-part documentary at the "Galeri Mandarin Nasional" platform, had claimed that his episode on Bakun Dam had been taken off the air.

He claimed that he was told that the expos on the social impact of the building of the dam would hurt Barisan Nasional's chances in the upcoming Sibu by-election, and that the episode would be postponed to a more "appropriate time".

However, Ibrahim said that RTM, specifically the current affairs department, has never stopped its staff from doing their jobs creatively and objectively.

W orn out cliches

In a statement, he also said that RTM is an official media which is steadfast in holding to the "responsible journalism" principle, broadcasting facts that will "encourage unity and harmony".

"Our reports will always take into account the wants of the public, and are authoritative and fair.

"RTM airs reports involving all races and ethnicities which are appropriate to the 1Malaysia concept."

He added that RTM also always ensures that programs aired over TV1 and TV2 are beneficial to the public and the country.

NONE Meanwhile, it was previously reported that Deputy Information, Communications and Culture Minister Heng Seai Kie ( right ) had a different version to why the documentary was chopped.

A few days after the claims surfaced, she said that Chou's work only focused on the relocation problems of the native community, but failed to present the views of the state government and dam builder.

Chou had intended to put the spotlight on the plight of the natives of Belaga forcibly relocated to Sungai Asap and Sungai Koyan in 1998.

Political interference ejects journalists

The series had been scheduled to run from Apr 26 to May 7 in the 12.20pm to 12.30pm slot on TV2 but have since cancelled.

Instead, reruns of old series were aired on "Galeri Mandarin Nasional" while some days saw the entire program absent.

In an immediate reply to Heng's statements, Chou wrote a scathing entry in his blog, criticising her for her relative inaction.

Chou is in a long line of journalists who have also claimed political meddling in the course of their work.

Former ntv7 producer and award-winning journalist Joshua Wong resigned from his position as producer of the popular talk show "Editor's Time" as a result of "overzealous self-censorship and government interference".

His former colleague at the station Florence Looi was also recently demoted to field reporting after panelists and viewers on her show gave not-so-flattering comments on Najib's performance in his first 100 days in power.