Malaysia presses down freedom of media

The oldest newspaper in Malaysia and government mouth piece, New Straits Times, is facing government punishment publishing a cartoon which satired the Prophet Muhammad cartoon debacle.

The government has slapped a show cause letter against the daily and has given it three days to explain itself.

A possible action against the NST now follows the indefinite suspension of two other dailies for publishing the offensive Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

NST though did not publish those cartoons, but had carried another piece - a Non Sequitur strip by Wiley Miller. It featured a street artist sitting on a chair next to a sign which read ‘Caricatures of Muhammad While You Wait’. A boxed caption read ‘Kevin finally achieves his goal to be the most feared man in the world’.

Although NST is quite confident that it was weather this storm, noises from strong places are gaining in strength.

For premier Dr M wants NST's editor to be suspended for "two to three months".

While NST itself, in an editorial, said:

"When the truth gets reported, some get hurt. The powerful ones will seek to
protect themselves with whatever means at their disposal."

In its front page report, it said:

"The ministry said the cartoon had breached the conditions of the newspaper's publishing permit. It added that the sketch was inappropriate and could invite negative reactions in the country, especially among Muslims."

We now await further developments. Surely the government will not suspend the ruling party's organ?

If NST has republished the offending Danish cartoons, then its reprehensible for actions to be taken against it.

In this case, its just another cartoon - there are many political/editorial cartoons being published all over the world on this matter.

And most of the time, these political cartoons are not just humurous, but also deliver the message succintly - that its time to get moving from the matter.

And for NST to reproduce one such political cartoon - from a reputable strip no less - is not a major offence that needs the government to come down hard on it.

Whay is the government so eager to play hard against the media on this matter then? Could it be that it wants to portray itself as the prominent voice of the Islamic world in its capacity as the chairperson of OIC?

Or is it because PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wants to strength his position as an Islamic scholar in the country, brushing aside any political victories for opposition Islamic party PAS?

Whatever it is, the bottom line is that if the government is going to be sensitive about this matter, it will only succeed in pressing the Malaysian media further into a hole.

read more in Jeff Ooi's blog.

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