The government has been accused of preventing journalists from doing their work for fear of offending Burmese general Khin Nyunt, who on Tuesday made a one-day visit to Malaysia as the country's prime minister.

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders and Bangkok-based Burma Media Association (BMA) today issued a joint press statement slamming the harassment of Burmese journalists in Malaysia.

They cited the case of Ko Minn Kyaw Minn, editor of fortnightly magazine Burma Media Link, who was abducted and interrogated by people who claimed to be from Malaysia's police Special Branch for 12 harrowing hours.

In addition, another Burmese journalist, Sein Mar, is also currently being held by the police for being part of a protest outside the Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

"It would be shocking if, as well as ceremonially receiving the head of a tyrannical and illegitimate regime, the Malaysian authorities were preventing journalists from doing their work for fear of offending a Burmese general," the two organisations said in a letter to prime minister and internal security minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

According to Minn Kyaw, he was forced off the road by two unmarked cars on Tuesday while driving to the airport in Kuala Lumpur with his Malaysian wife, Yussra Shahril, to cover the arrival of Khin Nyunt.

He said that three men, who identified themselves as officials from the Special Branch, handcuffed him and placed a black hood over his head.

Minn Kyaw was driven to an unknown location, where he was interrogated about the funding of his magazine and his pro-democracy activities.

Female journalist detained

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Border and BMA also called for the release of Sein Mar, editor of the newsletter Yaung Chee Oo , who has been detained since May 17.

She was arrested along with her seven-year-old daughter after demonstrating in front of the Burmese embassy against the 'sham' national convention organised by the Burmese junta.

The convention which aims to draft a new constitution and paved the way for fresh elections - was boycotted by opposition party National League of Democracy when the generals refused to release its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest.

Police have handed Sein Mar's daughter to officials from the Kuala Lumpur office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Sein Mar and 23 other protesters, all of whom have been denied bail, are expected to be brought to court and charged for illegal assembly on June 14.