Is Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's refusal to grant printing permits to two news portals the result of being cowed by an NGO that had infamously conducted a butt protest?

This question was raised by Seputeh MP Teresa Kok today, when she pointed out that the Armed Forces Veteran Association led by Mohd Ali Baharom had last month called for Zahid's sacking after he  presented a media award to Malaysiakini .

"I want to ask Zahid Hamidi whether he has been cowed by the threat made by the group that he decided to attack the two news portals as well reject their permit applications," Kok said in a statement today.

In a written reply to Parliament yesterday, Zahid said the application for printing permits by Malaysiakini and FZ.com were rejected as too many newspapers would confuse the public and also because the portals produced "sensational and controversial news".

Mohd Ali, who in 2012 led a ' butt exercise ' outside former Bersih chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan as a protest for her involvement in a free and fair election rally, had called Zahid " stupid " for presenting the award to Malaysiakini .

He also threatened to perform the same 'exercise' outside the Malaysiakini premises if the news portal did not apologise for its reports. However, Mohd Ali did not follow through with this threat.

Zahid was the guest-of-honour at the World Bloggers and Social Media Awards 2014 last month, at which Malaysiakini won the Social Media Excellence award.

Kok said Zahid's latest assertion that too many newspapers would confuse the public was "baseless, unacceptable and unfair" and demanded proof of this.

She claimed Zahid was the one who had given confusing responses, in his defence of the threat to slap her, with Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri adding to such confusion yesterday in his inaccurate answer on the missing Flight MH370, and then retracting it.

"So, can Zahid deny that BN ministers and deputy ministers have the tendency to confuse issues and the public?" Kok asked.