Despite rumours of a police clampdown, many turned up at the Press Freedom Forum in the Penang Chinese Town Hall last night to hear malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan talk about o­nline daily malaysiakini and its important role as a media.

The o­ne-hour forum, entitled " Malaysiakini - freedom after the raid", organised by non-governmental organisations Save Ourselves, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) and Melodi, was attended by about 100 people.

Guest speaker Gan started his speech by saying that he received an anonymous call o­n Thursday telling him that police was planning to disrupt the forum.

"There is a lot of fear out there but some Malaysians can overcome that fear. Others are fearful because there is a growing tendency for the government to clampdown o­n freedom of assembly and speech," he said.

At the forum, Gan took the opportunity to update the participants about the raid, which occurred o­n Jan 20, during which, police carted away 19 computers following malaysiakini 's refusal to reveal the identity of a letter writer whose letter was the subject of a police report by Umno Youth. Four of malaysiakini 's servers are still with the police.

Many challenges

With a slide show presentation, Gan related the ordeal malaysiakini staff had to go through during the raid, and explained the nature of the interrogation he and four other malaysiakini editorial staff underwent while giving statements to the police at the police station in the following days of the raid.

He also spoke about the other challenges that malaysiakini face routinely in doing its best to provide independent news without fear or favour.

Gan gave examples of computer hackings and server break-ins that create high traffic volume that would eventually paralyse the site.

According to Gan, the other challenges include the continuing denial of a proper accreditation by the Home Ministry because the website does not need a publishing license, as well as indirect government pressure o­n advertising clients.

After the raid, malaysiakini was also served with an eviction order by landlord PC Suria, who supplies computers to schools and need to leverage with the government for contracts.

There were also attempts to run down the credibility of the website by questioning its financial sources and running down the image of its owners by portraying them as student rebels who cannot be trusted.

Gan said since the raid, many readers have been spooked, leading many to have reservations about giving information to malaysiakini . This, Gan stressed, may lead to problems of surviving financially.

Wait and see

Meanwhile, Gan said currently there is a lot of discussions about the war against terrorism, and the o­nly way to win this war may be the democratisation of Islamic societies.

"One of the most peaceful weapon is to let democracy mushroom by allowing an independent media," he added.

During the question-and-answer session that followed, Gan was asked if he thought he would be arrested by the police soon.

To this, Gan responded that any action against him or malaysiakini would depend o­n whether the police or government felt that there would be a backlash.

"International response and reactions have put pressure o­n them and they would think twice before taking any action. We would have to wait and see," said Gan.

"Things have been very quiet during the 13th Non-Aligned Movement summit but maybe this was because there were many foreign journalists around. If anything happens, it would get reported," he added.

If Gan is charged under the Sedition Act and found guilty, he may be jailed for up to three years, but he said "we will fight back".