Popular talk radio station BFM 89.9 has clarified that it was not pressured to  cancel an interview with a PKR lawmaker involved in the anti-Lynas lobby.

NONE When contacted, producer Noelle Lim said the interview with Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh (left) has only been postponed in order to take a different approach to issues surrounding the Lynas rare earth plant in Gebeng.

“There must have been miscommunication. We did not pursue the interview because we wanted to do a panel discussion with a rare earth expert together with Fuziah,” she said in an email.

The interview will be “pursued at a later date” due to the upcoming festive season, as many experts are on leave.

“(There was) no call from someone powerful regarding this matter,” Lim said, denying Fuziah’s claim.

The station is just “trying to be neutral” and “the regulator didn't ask us not to do any interviews on Lynas”, she added.

NONE Fuziah had posted on microblogging site Twitter that a radio station had called off the interview “at the last minute” purportedly due to censorship.

“My interview scheduled with one radio station this morning was called off at the last minute, when they received a phone call dari 'orang atas' (from higher-ups),” she had tweeted yesterday.

Without naming the station, Fuziah said it hopes to reschedule the interview but “the Lynas issue is too hot for them to handle”.

‘Producers apologetic’

Contacted later, the PKR vice-president said she was told of the 'cancellation' after waiting for 15 minutes at the radio station.

“It was to be a pre-recorded interview...(The producers) were very apologetic, and said they had received instruction through a telephone call,” Fuziah said.

The producers were “put in a difficult situation” and were “really troubled” by this, she claimed.

Fuziah added that she had suggested a panel interview involving her and someone who supports the setting up of the plant.