Free Anwar Campaign (FAC), the international lobby network for jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, today countered the explanation by Australia-based Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in denying allegations of conspiring against Anwar.

The broadcaster's international affairs programme, Dateline , has been accused of conspiring against Anwar by drawing an alleged link between him and terrorism based on his status as a board member of the US-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).

IIIT has been described as "a body accused of funding (Palestinian group) Islamic Jihad". (Islamic Jihad has often claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, acts which it says are necessary in its bid to end Israeli occupation of the territories).

SBS has denied plotting against Anwar.

It's Sungai Buloh!

FAC director Raja Petra Kamarudin, in a four-page piece entitled 'SBS Dateline transfers Anwar to the Kajang Prison', punched holes in the defence put up by the station's international affairs programme on Oct 31.

He accused SBS of "shoddy research", saying that the contentious feature would otherwise not have referred to Anwar as 'Dr'.

"If SBS is trying to say that it is very accurate and thorough, and that its research is impeccable, surely (it would have known) that Anwar had never received any doctorate," he said.

Raja Petra said such an error could not be dismissed as "trivial" or "a mere typo".

"(An) important letter meant to rebut the allegation of collusion should be free of errors, as errors only strengthen the belief that SBS is less than accurate, thorough or impeccable in its research."

Citing SBS' claim of "journalistic excellence", he questioned the blatant mistake in which the Dateline feature had named Kajang Prison, instead of Sungai Buloh, as the location of Anwar's incarceration.

"The whole world knows Anwar is jailed in Sungai Buloh Prison," he said. He listed major governmental and non-governmental bodies that had issued statements on Anwar over the years.

"Did SBS make an 'honest' mistake or did it intentionally try to mislead the viewers (by showing shots of Kajang prison)?

"Either way, this reflects shoddy journalism, certainly not one of excellence as they claim."

Unwitting participant

Referring to SBS' Oct 31 statement, Raja Petra tried debunking claims that the "story was inspired solely from the work done by (correspondent) Ms (Ginny) Stein and the researcher" by quoting veteran writer MGG Pillai (right).

When contacted, he said Pillai, who claimed to be an unwitting participant in the run-up to a parallel investigation for the programme, confirmed that Anwar had been the intended target.

"He sent me an e-mail about 2-3 pages long explaining the whole thing up to the point when he was dropped by SBS and later accused of being bought over," he told malaysiakini .

Quoting excerpts from Pillai's piece, Raja Petra said SBS had then teamed up with a "deputy minister who hates (Anwar) and did all he could - including manufacturing evidence - to destroy him".

He alleged that SBS had also worked with a businessman who fed the programme's correspondent the "slant she wanted" and had relied on dodgy sources for the feature story.

He also questioned SBS' failure to name the researcher, who was named and described in Raja Petra's article as a "bus cleaner from Sydney", the man Pillai was said to have met at an Umno official's house when discussing the alleged conspiracy to implicate Anwar.

"However, immediately after that, I received confirmation from the said Umno official via email.

"We have all the information. If they (SBS) decide to challenge these allegations in court, we will be glad to produce further evidence to back up our claims."

Another poser

The absence of the programme transcript on SBS' website was also questioned.

"Why has SBS not put the transcripts of its controversial Oct 22 Dateline feature on its website? All the others for (the month of) October are online, except for this particular one. Is SBS scared of putting the transcript in the public domain?"

The programme created a furore, with Anwar's wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail calling the feature "slanderous". Anwar is also planning to sue SBS.

Washington-based IIIT has since dismissed the SBS report allegedly linking it to terrorist groups as "utter nonsense", and called it "cheap shots" and "wild allegations".

Dateline executive producer Mike Carey was unavailable for comments at press time.