National news agency Bernama editor-in-chief Azman Ujang today refused to clarify the agency's apparent mistake for issuing a purportedly government directive barring editors from reporting on the deadly bird flu disease.

"No comment, please leave it as that," Azman said when contacted by malaysiakini this evening.

"Bernama's position is no comment," he stressed despite being repeatedly pressed to provide an explanation.

Late Wednesday night, state-owned Bernama sent an 'Urgent note to editors' stating that the Prime Minister's Department has 'directed the media not to use any story relating to the so-called bird flu in the country'.

However, the next day, the PM's Department denied issuing any such directive.

It further said that the advisory to editors not to use any story relating to bird flu issued by Bernama and attributed to the department was 'incorrect'.

Gov't will reveal all

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today vowed the government would not conceal any information pertaining to the bird flu, which was detected in a small village on Wednesday in Kelantan.

He stressed the government would reveal all facts on the outbreak in a transparent manner to avoid suspicion by certain members of the public.

"This is a cabinet directive to avoid any confusion on the issue. We don't want anyone to suspect that we are trying to cover up negative developments on the matter," Najib was reported as saying.

Health authorities have confirmed that the avian flu virus in Kelantan is of the deadly 'H5V1' strain, which has killed 27 people in Southeast Asia so far this year.

A teenage girl from the Kampung Baru Pasir Pekan - where the bird flu virus was detected - was hospitalised today with cold symptoms but is not believed to have caught the disease.