The government is not censoring online newspaper malaysiakini 's content, as such a move would be contradictory to its policy of zero-Internet censorship, the Home Affairs ministry said in a written statement to Parliament today.

The ministry said that

malaysiakini reporters were not issued accreditation tags to cover official events because the web site is not registered and does not have a publishing permit issued by the Home Affairs ministry.

"But the government is not censoring malaysiakini 's news content. This is in line with its policy not to censor the Internet," the ministry said.

The statement was in response to a query raised by an opposition member of parliament (MP) on March 21, regarding the barring of the malaysiakini 's reporters from covering official functions.

DAP MP for Kota Melaka Kerk Kim Hock questioned whether the barring was against the government's guarantee of no Internet censorship.

More MSC companies

Kerk had also claimed that the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project had not attracted investors and that it had failed to project itself effectively as being able to help the country move into the information era and become more advanced than other countries in the K-economy sector.

In its statement, the ministry refuted this claim and clarified that the number of companies which are investing and being conferred MSC status was growing every year.

"It is expected that 150 companies will be given MSC status in the year 2001. This would mean that the companies investing in the MSC would increase to 621 by the end of this year," the ministry stated further.

The ministry also revealed that in 1997, the investment in the MSC amounted to RM306,000 with 94 companies. Last year, saw the figure was to RM4.728 million with 429 companies. The current figure is RM6.399 million with a total of 471 companies.

Verbal attack

Meanwhile, in a written statement, speaker Mohamed Zahir Ismail rejected Kerk's application to clarify events leading to his three-day suspension from Parliamentary last Tuesday under Standing Order 25.

"The proposal is not appropriate and does not satisfy conditions under the said Standing Order. A MP cannot make clarifications as and when he likes, unless the matter is important, for example, if there are allegations of corruption and crime that would affect his MP status," said Mohamed.

"Even ministers seldom make such clarifications under Standing Orders 14(1), unless the situation really demands for it, such as the Memali incident," he added.

Mohamed was replying to Kerk's application to clarify news reports saying that he had provoked the speaker and launched a verbal attack on deputy finance minister Chan Kong Choy, who was winding up the debate on the Supplementary Supply Bill.

"In my opinion, your case in not important. The mistake here is whether the matter had happened before or after the deputy minister spoke. This is not an important issue. The matter has been clarified in a press statement. Moreover, the mistake was done by the newspapers, not by you," said the Speaker.

"Therefore, I will not allow you to make your own clarification," he added.