The recent ban imposed on bimonthly magazine Detik by the Home Ministry was "totally irresponsible and unprofessional", local human rights group Suaram said today.

"We regret that the right to freedom of expression in this country is becoming extinct day by day. The action taken by the ministry in not renewing the magazine's permit indicates its efforts in repressing the people's awareness," Suaram coordinator Justin Yong said in a press statement to malaysiakini this morning.

Yong also expressed little surprise with the ban for he said that the ministry was clearly a government's tool to deny the people's right to expression and to punish the voices that criticised the government.

"The leadership proves to be very afraid and worried with popular magazines that revealed corruption and highlighted issues of human rights and justice," he added.

"Even more disgusting in this ( Detik's ) case is that the ministry was too lazy to offer any reason for the ban. The Home Minister acts like a feudal lord who has absolute power and could act as he wanted to," Yong stated.

Meanwhile, a Paris-based international journalist organisation, Reporters Sans Frontieres (Journalists Without Borders) today sent a letter to Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, to protest against his decision to withdraw Detik's publishing licence.

The organisation which defends jailed journalists and press freedom throughout the world, asked the minister to change his decision, adding that it constituted a violation of press freedom.

RSF general secretary Robert Menard urged the authorities to "liberalise the press laws, for example the Printing Presses and Publications Act, and to stop direct and indirect pressure on private newspapers".

Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists refused to comment on the issue when contacted by malaysiakini yesterday.

Detik received an official letter from the Home Ministry yesterday confirming that its publishing permit would not be renewed. The ministry did not give any reasons for the banning of the magazine.

Former editor-in-chief Ahmad Lutfi Othman, however, told malaysiakini that a ministry official had informed him by telephone that the magazine was banned because "the original permit was handed over to another party".