The Malaysian Chinese Newspaper Editors' Association has expressed their "deep regret" over the accusation of Health Minister Chua Jui Meng against Chinese dailies for playing up stories o­n the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak.

The association said in a statement that the dailies were merely playing their role in assisting the government to disseminate all Sars-related information to the public.

"We gave wider coverage to the Sars outbreak in this country and its global situation to assist the government to disseminate accurate information, to help the public take preventive measures and avoid panicking," the statement, carried in all Chinese newspapers today, said.

The association also called for "transparency" from the authorities concerned in handling information o­n Sars.

Twisting facts

On Monday, Chua blamed the four major Chinese dailies for "exaggerating" the Sars outbreak in the country during a dialogue with corporate leaders. The dialogue was called by Acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahamd Badawi.

The four dailies are Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press which are owned by MCA, and Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily, owned by Sarawak timber tycoon Tiong Hiew King, an ally of MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik.

The fifth Chinese newspaper, Oriental Daily , did not incur the wrath of Chua, a political rival of Ling, over their Sars reporting.

In the past two days, Sin Chew and Nanyang carried strong-worded editorials countering Chua's accusation.

In its editorial titled "Health Minister, we don't agree (with you)", Sin Chew said Chua ( photo ) was twisting facts and had misled corporate leaders at Monday's dialogue.

It added that Chua did not name specific incidents where the dailies had erred in their reporting o­n Sars and "this is not acceptable in a democratic and open society".

Nanyang

, in its editorial, urged the health minister to state exactly which sentence and which paragraph in its stories were "exaggerations".

"In the court of law, the o­nus is o­n the defendant (after he had made an accusation) to provide details o­n 'when, what, where and how'. Similarly, the minister should do likewise" the daily wrote.

Nanyang

also published a letter from the Health Ministry's director-general Dr Mohd Taha Arif protesting against the daily's coverage of the Sars epidemic.

Prevent rumour-mongering

Contacted for comment, Oriental Daily editor-in-chief Puah You Lai defended Chinese dailies' stand in reporting the disease.

"Our responsibility is to prevent a situation of 'you guess, I guess and everybody guess' over Sars. Everyone is concerned about Sars and the less rumours we have the better," he said.

Association president Koo Cheng could not be reached for comment this morning.

Meanwhile DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang ( photo ) said Chua should apologise to the Chinese press for his "unfair and baseless" attack.

He said the minister should be thankful to these vernacular dailies for "forcing him (Chua) to end the denial syndrome o­n Sars".

"Chua's attack was both gratuitous and ungrateful for the Chinese press had saved him from the fate of the Chinese Health Minister Zhang Wen Kang and Beijing mayor Meng Xue Nong who were sacked when the Chinese authorities woke up to the fact that the cover-up of the outbreak had confronted China with international credibility crisis," the DAP chief said in a statement.

On April 7, Chua had held a briefing for editors from the electronic and print media aimed at providing various "critical groups" with a "better picture" of the government's effort to combat the disease.