Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has described the action of some protestors in the demonstration held outside the New Straits Times Press (NSTP) office in Kuala Lumpur last Friday as 'disgraceful'.

"While PKR respects the right of people and organisations to articulate their views through peaceful demonstration, we strongly disapprove the use of inflammatory language which perpetuates religious or racial bigotry.

"We regret to see some individuals in the demonstration carrying placards and banners that displayed such narrow-mindedness. We believe they are not reflecting the view of the leadership of any political parties in this country.

"We urge all Malaysians to disassociate itself from these disgraceful expressions in the future," said its information chief Tian Chua ( right ) in a statement today.

In the demonstration , some 500 people gathered outside the newspaper's office to protest against a cartoon strip, which they deemed had insulted Prophet Muhammad.

The crowd began chanting Allahuakbar and displayed banners which accused the 160-year-old newspaper of being a 'Singapore agent' among many other things. There were also those brandishing placards with derogatory remarks, such as 'bastard', against the daily's top management.

The demonstration was organised by Islamic opposition party PAS. Both PKR and PAS make-up the opposition front, Barisan Alternatif.

No connection

However, PKR today distanced itself from the demonstration and also expressed regret that some of its members had participated in it.

Contrary to several media reports which claimed that PKR was a co-sponsor of the demonstration, Tian Chua said the party had nothing to do with it.

Terming the reports as incorrect, he clarified that PKR was not consulted nor invited to be a signatory for the memorandum on NST .

On the same note, he said the party leadership will investigate its members who were present at the demonstration.

"We would like to reiterate that they had not gone with the consent of the party. PKR leadership will investigate and look into this matter seriously," he added.

Meanwhile, Tian said while PKR is fully committed to press freedom, the media should not take this a license to insult any faith or its followers.

On the same note, he added that recent international outrage against a few irresponsible newspapers has unfortunately become a pretext for the authorities to further to exert their control over the media here.

"It is alarming to see press freedom suffer further regression of censorship. We believe the attacks on press independence will further undermine the effectiveness of the media to check wide-spreading corruption and abuses of power in our society," he added.