The barring of malaysiakini journalists from covering government functions must be lifted before it damages the future of information technology in the country, said an opposition leader today.

DAP chief Lim Kit Siang said that the ban, announced by Information Ministry parliamentary secretary Zainuddin Maidin on Sunday, would undermine the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project and Malaysia's push for a knowledge-based economy.

"Zainuddin should immediately announce the lifting of the ban before more harm is done," said Lim in a press statement today.

He said that otherwise, Zainuddin should bear the responsibility for violating the MSC Bill of Guarantee, which promises no censorship of the Internet.

Last week, Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung said that malaysiakini was barred from attending government press conferences as its journalists did not have proper press accreditations.

Credibility in doubt

Echoing his call, Zainuddin explained that the ban was not because the website was critical of the government, but because of doubts regarding malaysiakini 's credibility.

He said that the online daily's credibility had been undermined by a report that it had received aid from the "Open Society Fund" operated by international currency trader George Soros.

The Far Eastern Economic Review stated in an article entitled [#1]'Levelling the field'[/#] in its Feb 8 edition that malaysiakini was among the media organisations in Asia which received funds from Soros' foundation.

Upon malaysiakini 's denial of the assertion, the Review clarified that "Soros funds Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa), one source of funding for malaysiakini ". ([#2] Malaysiakini seeks retraction from magazine [/#], Feb 2).

Nevertheless, the clarification was described as inadequate and misleading by Malaysiakini.com chief executive officer Premesh Chandran.

He said that the clarification suggested that the company received funds indirectly from Soros, which was not the case.

Chandran added that malaysiakini , launched in November 1999, was financed from a mix of different sources, including grants from Seapa, a regional network of journalist organisations.

Seapa has also released a [#3] statement [/#] to say that malaysiakini does not received funds, either directly or indirectly, from Soros.

"OSI (Open Society Institute), however, gave a grant to support the work of a project consultant from the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists to work with Seapa for 24 months ending in May.

"This is the only support that Seapa has received from OSI and it was used to fund the consultant's work and part of the administrative requirements of running Seapa's Bangkok office," it said.

'Media supremo'

According to Lim, Zainuddin, who is a veteran journalist, has not started on the right foot in his first two weeks as the government's 'media supremo', although he vowed after his swearing-in on Jan 30, to uplift confidence in the media, particularly government media.

He said the announcement of the ban by Zainuddin is his "biggest blunder" because this could be used by the foreign media to bash the government for imposing Internet censorship through the backdoor, and thus breaching the MSC Bill of Guarantee.

"As the government 'media supremo', Zainuddin would have to bear the greatest responsibility for such dire consequences," he added.