Members of the European Muslim Election Assessment Committee were allegedly told by de facto Law Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz that the opposition will have no access to the mainstream media.

european muslim election assessment committee 050213 fadime orgu According to Fadime Örgü ( left ), a former Dutch MP, Nazri made the remark when the committee met him yesterday morning to discuss about fair media access for all parties.

“The answer (from Nazri) was that Malaysia has structural distinctions and the mainstream media is a governmental tool," she told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“(Nazri said) opposition parties will (only) get time to speak on the (Radio and Television Malaysia) during the election period."

Örgü declined to elaborate on the matter, other than that more would be revealed in the committee's report that will be published in March.

Several attempts to contact Nazri were made but there has been no reply.

Longer campaign period mooted

NONE The three-member committee arrived on Sunday for a study, on the invitation of Parliamentary opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

According to the group's itinerary, the committee has met the Senate secretary, Election Commission, Bersih 2.0 and several Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

Meanwhile, another committee member Zouhair Amri said Malaysia should ensure a long campaign period because it was good for democracy.

He said that in his home country of France, campaigning periods at times would exceed two months.

Zouhair, a media analyst, said the current Malaysian practice of having short campaigning periods - citing the eight-day campaign in 2004 as an example - was insufficient for voters to be adequately informed.

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