(RSF/IFEX) – On 24 January 2003, RSF expressed its outrage over plans to evict Malaysia’s Internet news website Malaysiakini.com from its premises, just days after police raided the independent news outlet’s offices, apparently for publishing criticism of the government. RSF warned that the move once again threatened the country’s chief source of independent news. “Malaysiakini”‘s […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 24 January 2003, RSF expressed its outrage over plans to evict Malaysia’s Internet news website Malaysiakini.com from its premises, just days after police raided the independent news outlet’s offices, apparently for publishing criticism of the government. RSF warned that the move once again threatened the country’s chief source of independent news.
“Malaysiakini”‘s landlord, PC Suria, a firm with ties to the government, issued an eviction order on 22 January, instructing the website to move by the end of February, saying it had been involved in “unlawful activities.” Police raided the “Malaysiakini” offices on 20 January, seizing the news outlet’s 19 computers.
“This is yet another attempt to shut down ‘Malaysiakini’,” editor-in-chief Steve Gan said. “We believe the authorities have put pressure on PC Suria.”
The website’s chief executive, Premesh Chandran, said moving offices would cost the news outlet about 100,000 ringgits (US$26,000) and disrupt its activities for at least two weeks. “It will also mean a loss in subscription revenue, as well as a loss of confidence among our readers and subscribers,” he added.
“Malysiakini” has been unable to contact its landlord since receiving the eviction order, but Gan said that “if they think that evicting us will cripple our operation, they are wrong.” He urged the website’s readers and supporters to be patient.
Background Information
“Malysiakini” has rented offices in Bangsar Utama, near Kuala Lumpur, since December 2000 from PC Suria, a computer products distributor that is wholly owned by a government-backed firm, NASCOM. On 9 January, the website carried a letter that criticised the government’s granting of special rights to the country’s ethnic Malay majority and compared the ruling party’s youth wing to the racist United States-based Ku Klux Klan.
The website, which was launched in November 1999, gets 100,000 visitors a day and has won international prizes for its news coverage of a country where the media is tightly controlled. The government had formally pledged not to restrict the website’s content.
