The Pakatan Rakyat-led Penang government has been refused advertising space for its poverty eradication programme by a prominent Malay languange daily.

It was allegedly told by the top-selling newspaper Harian Metro that the daily would not sell advertising space to opposition parties.

"The state government wanted to purchase advertisement for our poverty eradication programme, to eradicate poverty by this year and to get the low income families to register...

fu ah kiow parliament pc 131106 harian metro dvd prisoner caning "We went to Harian Metro and they said as the advertisement is from an opposition Pakatan Rakyat government, they would not accept it," Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng lamented at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Speaking after launching DAP's Internet channel UbahTV , Lim said Harian Metro maintained its stand even when informed that the advertisements were not political and were from the state government.

"This is strange in Malaysia... we want to give people money, they don't want," Lim added.

Malaysiakini had contacted New Straits Times Press (NSTP)'s advertising department but a senior manager refused to comment. 

Almost all major newspapers and electronic broadcast stations in Malaysia are owned either directly, or through proxy, by the ruling BN coalition or related political interests, opening the media to manipulation by the ruling coalition.

The only exception being one newspaper owned by a business tycoon and several online news portals that can be considered independent.

Government and opposition-sponsored online news websites also dot the landscape, with some claiming to be independent, but whose benefactors are suspect.

This has led to skewed news coverage which in the mainstream sites seemingly demonising the opposition and withholding the right of reply for major accusations.

Even independent media still faces extreme restrictions as they continue to be regulated by draconian laws that disadvantage if not muzzle the media such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act and the Sedition Act.

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