A breakaway team of online news website Agenda Malaysia today launched an Internet news portal Agenda Daily .

Agenda Daily chief editor Rozaid A Rahman, who was AM chief editor, said that the reason for going his own way was because of differences with AM chief executive officer Mohd Jafaar Ismail.

"One of the obstacles we faced in AM was that the owner wanted to focus more on finance and business, while we wanted to come up with more daily news," Rozaid told malaysiakini .

"We reached a deadlock on the matter and we decided to part, on good terms."

AM , a bilingual e-magazine which folded up due to financial difficulties last year, reappeared in April as a predominantly Bahasa Malaysia daily news website.

With all but one of the original AM team defecting to the Agenda Daily , AM 's future remain unclear. However, AM has since last week reverted to its original magazine-style format.

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Rozaid said the Internet currently has considerably more offerings of news in English than in Bahasa Malaysia. He said Agenda Daily aimed to fill vacuum left by the English-language websites.

"The number of readers of the national language is actually much bigger than those who read in English. It is only that the there are not many daily news media portals in the national language, except for the reformasi websites whose owners are unknown," he said.

Rozaid is optimistic that the new website will generate a good response.

"There are two million Internet users in Malaysia and if we manage to get even five percent of them, then it is a good start already."

To be fully operational by the end of this month, the daily is being run by eight staff, all of whom were former AM journalists.

Funding

Rozaid pointed out that Agenda Daily is unlike other websites offering information or news as it is presented like a newspaper.

"We are graduates from the conservative school of journalism, but the change in the ways of gathering news and reading habits of Malaysians have encouraged us to meld the conservative newspaper concept with the new online newspaper concept," said Rozaid, a former Utusan Malaysia editor.

The daily is being managed by Image Workfield Sdn Bhd. Its revenue will come from advertisements and media consultations.

Rozaid said the fact that a media practitioner, whom he declined to name, is funding Agenda Daily also relieves some of the burden off the team, compared with if they were being funded by a businessman.

"Our capital is at the most minimal and furthermore, we are using the already existing infrastructure.

"When we have a media practitioner (to fund us), the main aim is not only to generate profits. We are given ample time to come up with the revenues," said Rozaid.

Press permit

On the possibility of the Printing Presses and Publications Act being amended to encompass the Internet, as suggested by de facto law minister Dr Rais Yatim recently, Rozaid said it is almost impossible to control online websites, except on content.

"The host server could be based in the United States so how are they going to control (the website content)?" he asked.

As for the more immediate concern of getting Information Ministry permits for its reporters to cover official functions, which have only been issued to press companies with a publishing licence - something that web news providers do not require as yet - Agenda Daily does not foresee that as a problem and will not be applying for permits.

"Not having permits is not an obstacle for reporters. If they do not allow us in, we will get them outside. We will work on our own stories, we will 'dig' our own stories, do our own analyses and special reports.

"Sooner or later, the authorities will realise that they cannot ignore us," said Rozaid.