The punishment exacted on Asiaweek by delaying distribution of its past five issues since the May 25 edition, was because of 'mistakes' the international weekly magazine has made, the deputy home minister said today.

"The delays are due in part to blunders which they have admitted on their part," Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung told malaysiakini without elaborating what the mistakes were.

However, when contacted in Asiaweek 's headquarters in Hong Kong, executive editor Richard Hornik said that his magazine had not admitted to making any blunders.

"I have no idea what he is talking about. Even though the Home Ministry has the legal right to delay the distribution, we have not been told why and this is very upsetting," said Hornik.

"We have printed corrections in our publication but we did not admit to any blunders," he added.

Hornik said that they had written a letter seeking to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also home minister, over a month ago but got no response.

"Home Ministry officials later told us that the minister was too busy. Just last week our publisher Peter B Brack met with Information Ministry officials but they, too, could not give any reasons," Hornik added.

An approval from the Home Affairs Ministry is needed for the sale and distribution of foreign publications. Such approvals are usually given at the beginning of each week after a few copies are submitted for vetting the week before.

Asiaweek usually hits the streets six days before its cover date.

To date, the May 25 edition has been released, but not the later issues.

Hornik said he is frustrated by the lack of information on why the magazine is being held back.

"We feel that there is nothing we can do and we have not been given any information. But for a country like Malaysia wanting to be part of the global society and to have an open society, it must allow for many views and perspectives," he said.

Unflattering photo

Hornik added that the magazine would be interested to hear whatever complaints the Malaysian government has against Asiaweek .

"If they have problems they should talk to us. We can have a meeting with either myself, or our editor, Dorinda Elliot, could meet with them," he said.

When asked if the recent articles in Asiaweek were seen as too critical of the Malaysian government, Hornik said, "We don't consider our coverage as being critical, we are just reporting on what's going on."

Asiaweek first raised Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's ire when it published an unflattering photo of him in its Jan 26 issue, which he said attempted to portray him as an "idiot".

Hornik, however, disputed Mahathir's claim.

"In fact, none of us can understand why he said that," he said.

Hornik said he had no idea what Asiaweek would do if the government should further delay the distribution of the magazine.

"We cannot speculate on what we are going to do when that does happen. We will cross the bridge when we get there," he said.

Contradictory statements

The distribution woes of Asiaweek began earlier in the year, with its March 2 issue being held back by three weeks.

The issue featured two articles on Malaysia, one containing the allegation that the Moro fighters in the Philippines were supported by the Malaysian government.

Later issues of Asiaweek were also delayed for up to three weeks before distribution approval was granted.

The government has given contradictory statements on the delays.

Information Minister Khalil Yaakob claimed there was no reason for the delays, while Deputy Home Affairs Minister Zainal Abidin Zin said the delays were probably due to negative reports on Malaysia.

Asiaweek 's double issue of June 1-8 featured its annual list of 50 most powerful Asians which placed Mahathir at 39, outranked by PAS deputy president and Terengganu Mentri Besar Abdul Hadi Awang who was seventh, malaysiakini founders (18), and business mogul T Ananda Krishnan (29).

Another international weekly, the Far Eastern Economic Review , which suffered the same fate as Asiaweek 's when the distribution of its previous issues was delayed for weeks, is now back on track.