A new English daily in Sarawak is expected to hit the streets in early March. Reliable sources said it will be a 40-page tabloid and will be called Eastern Times .

It is to fill the void that has been left with last week's indefinite suspension of Sarawak Tribune , the state's oldest English daily.

According to sources, there is an urgency to set up the new English-language newspaper in view of the state elections, expected to be in the coming months, possibly as early as June, even though the present term of government only expires on Nov 16.

It is learnt that the permit of the People's Mirror , an English tabloid that ceased publication several years ago, had been renewed with the new name.

The permit is issued for a group of owners different from the Sarawak Press Sdn Bhd, the publisher of the now suspended Sarawak Tribune .

When contacted, a spokesperson for the local Printing Presses and Publications section of the Internal Security Ministry said the permit for the People's Mirror was handled by their headquarters in Putrajaya.

She said she could not confirm whether the paper's publication permit had indeed been renewed.

Editorial team

It is expected that most of Eastern Times' editorial team will be drawn from the editorial staff of Sarawak Tribune .

A newspaper editorial consultant is being hired to help kick off the daily, and there is now a flurry of activity to get the new paper on the streets as soon as possible.

When 60-year-old Sarawak Tribune was ordered to be suspended indefinitely after it violated the law for reprinting banned caricatures belittling prophet Muhammad, Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud-led Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu lost an important mouthpiece.

Taib's own family business interests hold a large interests in the paper through Sarawak Press Sdn Bhd, which also owns Utusan Sarawak - a Malay daily in Sarawak with a circulation of about 40,000, mostly in coastal and rural areas.

Sarawak Tribune had a last Audit Bureau of Circulation figure of 43,000, a pip ahead of its rival Borneo Post , in Sarawak.