Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today urged the world's Chinese-language press to counter what he called biased reporting by Western media on the Islamic world.

Abdullah told the World Chinese Press Convention that misunderstanding towards Islam after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks had been "further fanned into prejudice and even contempt" by some in the international media.

The world press had also unfairly linked Muslims and terrorists so they were taken to mean the same thing, said Abdullah, head of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement of developing states.

"The Chinese language press has a unique opportunity to provide a counter-balance to the prevailing international media viewpoint, much of which is shaped by the west," he said.

'Unbalanced reporting'

He told some 200 delegates from around 40 Chinese press in the region, the US and Europe they could "address this unbalanced reporting" and show that Islam was "compatible with modernity, democracy and diversity".

Malaysia and Indonesia for instance, "successfully rolled back religious radicalism through the ballot box" recently, he added.

The reach of the Chinese media outlets in mainly Muslim Malaysia ranked only behind those in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said Tiong Hiew King, president of the World Chinese Press Institute.

Globally, Tiong said the Chinese media could reposition itself to be on a par with the Western press with the emergence of China as an economic power.

"To have a powerful Chinese media which can match the Western media is no longer a distant and impossible dream. We should build a network of cooperation and communication for Chinese all over the world," he added.