The suspension of news weekly The Heat goes against the Islamic principle of open discussion, said a Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) academician.

Lecturer on revealed knowledge and humanities Maszlee Malik said the Home Ministry move was aimed at silencing the media, and that goes against good governance and the syura principle (on discussion, deliberation).

NONE "Without media freedom that is necessary in issues of governance and politics, a government will not be able to administrate a country in a fair, civilised and democratic manner," Maszlee ( right )  said when contacted last night.

He said media freedom played an important role in shaping the government, based on principles of transparency, and this applies to all its institutions.

"Monitoring of the government by the people and civil society is also in line with the concept of syura in Islam, and Islamic scholars call it al-riqabah 'ala al-hukumah (monitoring of the government)," he said.

Meanwhile, another prominent award-winning author and academic, Dr Faisal Tehrani, said that The Heat' s suspension was a violation of the 1991 Windhoek Declaration on press freedom, which was later adopted by Unesco and the United Nations.

He also said that with the suspension, Putrajaya was violating Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights (UDHR) 1948.

“What’s surprising is that Malaysia is active on the international stage, but chooses to commit inconsistent acts in its own turf compared to the attitude of the international community,” he said in a commentary to Malaysiakini today.

On Dec 19, the ministry suspended the under four-month-old publication after it ran a front page story highlighting the prime minister's spending , titled 'All eyes on big-spending Najib'.

However the ministry has denied the suspension is related to the article.

The indefinite suspension has raised a storm of protests, particularly from journalists, who have called on the public to wear red on Fridays in protest against the suspension.

'Prophet condemned autocracy'

Meanwhile a non-affiliated Kuala Lumpur ustaz Wan Ji Wan Husein ( below ) when asked about the suspension cited a Quranic verse illustrating how the pharaohs of old had been criticised for oppressing the voice of the people.

ppim police report against ustad wan ji insults sultan 200813 01 "Our prophet once said, give the right of freedom to they who have no rights.

"Clearly they should not suspend ( The Heat ). How can they obstruct the freedom to voice," Wan Ji said when contacted.

"Banning a newspaper that exposes the wrongdoings of the leaders is actually the fault of the leader involved, not the paper," he said.

The voices of dissent against the Home Ministry's moves gear up tonight with a forum on The Heat and press freedom in general at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall at 8.30pm.

Organised by the journalists' group Gerakan Media Marah (Geramm), the forum will feature a number of online news portal editors, including from Malaysiakini, as well as NGOs pushing the drive for media freedom in the country.