After being suspended for almost three months, Chinese newspaper Oriental News Daily hit the newsstands on New Year's day, but faced various circulation obstacles which its publishers alleged is the work of their rivals.

The company is now mulling legal action against those responsible for the 'blockage'.

Around 200,000 complimentary copies were distributed yesterday after the staff took to the streets themselves to help out.

When contacted on the phone this afternoon, the daily's editor-in-chief Puah You Lai ( photo ) said many vendors who had agreed to sell the paper suddenly withdrew.

Many of the production staff also failed to show up, which left the publishers with no choice but to get their other workers to fold and distribute the newspapers.

"This situation was particularly serious in Kuala Lumpur and Klang ... we believe (the vendors) were threatened by certain quarters and were warned not to sell our paper.

"Such methods are rather ugly. We (local Chinese dailies) should compete fairly in the saturated market," he said.

Puah said readers flooded his office with phone calls asking why they could not get the newspaper from the vendors.

"Our readers were told by the vendors that they do not dare sell our paper because they are afraid that their agent rights for other papers and publications would be suspended," he claimed.

Compiling information

He said the management viewed the matter seriously and has hired a lawyer to study the prospect of legal action.

"We are compiling any related information so that we can take action under the Penal Code when necessary.

"We have to protect the rights of the people to purchase our publication and we also hope they will persist in subscribing to our paper," said Puah.

The Malaysia Chinese Dailies Vendors Association could not be reached for comment.

The Chinese media in Malaysia are an oligopoly dominated by Pemandangan Sinar Sdn Bhd publisher of Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily and Nanyang Press Holdings publisher of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press .

Pemandangan Sinar belongs to Sarawakian timber tycoon Tiong Hiew King ( right ), a close associate of MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik ( left ) whose party controls Nanyang Press.

The four publications have a combined daily circulation of about 800,000 copies.

It was also learnt that one of these dailies had issued a directive to its reporters to keep their distance from their counterparts in Oriental Daily News . They were instructed not to share their notes with them or even offer them lifts to common assignment venues.

Oriental Daily News is owned by KTS Sdn Bhd a plantation company owned by another Sarawakian timber tycoon Lau Hui Kang ( photo ).

KTS also owns three other Sarawak-based dailies Utusan Borneo , Borneo Post and See Hua Daily .

The daily was slapped with a suspension order by the Home Affairs Ministry on the evening of its launch on Sept 29. No reason was given, leading some to claim that it was politically motivated.

However, the suspension was lifted by the ministry last Tuesday following a series of negotiations.

The daily which is giving a one-month free subscription, claims to have netted 120,000 readers.