DAP is incensed with Deputy Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin's speech at a press forum in Kuala Lumpur yesterday describing it as " most ill-informed, illogical, conceited and insufferable".

DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang also lashed out at Zainuddin for making "sinister and dangerous" insinuations during a keynote address at the National Union of Journalists forum.

He said firstly, Zam (as he is better known), is "uninformed and wrong" when he implied that World Press Freedom Day (WFPD) is part of the American conspiracy to impose a new colonialism o­n the rest of the world.

WPFD was, in fact, the initiative of Unesco after its historic 1991 conference in Windhoek, Namibia o­n "Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press", Lim explained.

The conference resulted in the Windhoek Declaration and the United Nations decision in 1993 to celebrate the event o­n its anniversary.

Lim also accused Zam of exhibiting an "inferiority complex" when he claimed that media freedom issues have become irrelevant on the ground that their Western proponents like CNN and BBC had violated the press freedom values which they promoted.

"This is because it is implicit in Zainuddin's attitude that press freedom values are embraced not because of their intrinsic universal merit and quality, but because they are advocated by the Americans, and since they had been violated by the Americans, these values have become irrelevant!

"Zainuddin does not understand that the violation of press freedom values by the Americans does not make press freedom irrelevant, just as commission of sins by sinners do not make the teachings of religions to be good and saintly irrelevant," said Lim.

In o­ne of his most scathing attacks against proponents of press freedom yesterday, Zam declared that media freedom issues have become irrelevant after their Western proponents allegedly abandoned these values in the Iraq war coverage.

Also in its report yesterday, malaysiakini said the deputy minister opined that the experiences of neighbouring countries have shown that media freedom is impractical in reality.

Zam had criticised Indonesia and Philippines, questioning whether a "country whose people can be bribed by a packet of food to demonstrate in the streets" can (practise press freedom responsibly).

Lim said Zam was being "unnecessarily conceited, arrogant and offensive, showing a most unfriendly Asean face" when insinuating that the Indonesians are most corruptible and the Filipinos were not qualified to

talk about press freedom when they do not have "full stomachs".