State-owned Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) axed a special feature on Chinese dailies to avoid "creating confusion" in the community, said Deputy Information Minister Donald Lim today.

"We don't want RTM to get involved in the Chinese dailies competition," he added when contacted.

TV2 was scheduled to air the10-minute-long feature titled 'Chinese dailies and their cultural role' in two parts during its Mandarin news last Thursday and Friday.

The first part was aired according to schedule but the second was not shown and no reasons were given.

However, observers said the instruction to scrap the programme was politically motivated.

The first part also showcased an interview with Chang Teck Peng, a columnist with fledgling Chinese newspaper Oriental Daily News . Coincidentally, his column was also be removed by the daily around the same time.

Complaints lodged

Meanwhile, Lim denied that there were any political reasons and added that the decision to remove the programme was made by a review committee in accordance to RTM's internal policy.

"We take complaints into consideration, on how other people feel whether it (the feature) is suitable because it will create confusion in the community," he added.

Asked if the 'complaints' came from the Chinese dailies, the deputy minister replied: "This (question) is not important".

"We have our own way of looking at it, but the most important thing is we must be fair to all parties," said Lim, who is also a MCA central committee member.

Previously, TV2 had also axed a special feature on the controversial acquisition of Nanyang Press Holdings - which publishes the dailies Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press - by MCA.

The saturated market saw competition heighten following the birth of Oriental Daily News last January. Other Chinese newspapers in the market are Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily .

Apart from Oriental Daily News , the other newspapers have a combined circulation of close to 800,000 copies a day.

The fledgling daily has also accused its politically-connected rivals of creating problems for its circulation.

Banned again

In a related development, Chang said he was informed by an editor with Oriental Daily News on Jan 31 that his column was removed.

He believed that the decision was linked to his interview which appeared in the RTM feature.

Commenting on this, Chang said his comments in the interview were purely academic based on his research of the Chinese media and that they did not offend anyone.

According to him, the interviewer had asked him to comment on the political environment surrounding the Chinese media and he responded by saying that many Chinese paper conglomerates promoted a cultural image for themselves by organising various cultural activities.

"I didn't name any Chinese dailies or touch on the competition between the papers, I only commented on how the Chinese papers succeeded in establishing their cultural image among readers," he said when contacted.

The former New Era College media studies department head also urged the government to allow the media to publish any newsworthy issues without restraints.

"The unhealthy competition among the Chinese dailies, the monopoly of the four major Chinese dailies are newsworthy and there is no reason why the media can't report on it," he added.

Chang only resumed writing for the daily last month after he was blacklisted by the Home Ministry and had his column banned last year.

When contacted, Oriental Daily News editor-in-chief Puah You Lai declined to comment on whether the ministry had ordered for the column to be removed again.

He said the paper has to abide by the previous "agreement" that several columnists were "unsuitable" to contribute to the paper.