Saturday September 13, 2008
Show-cause letters for dailies
PETALING JAYA: Three newspapers – Sin Chew Daily, the Sun and Suara Keadilan – have received show-cause letters from the Home Ministry for breaching publications guidelines.
The Ministry’s Publications and Quranic Text Control Unit secretary Che Din Yusof said The Sun was issued with the letter for alleged manipulation and highlighting of many sensitive issues.
Latest news: The Sun, Sin Chew Daily and Suara Keadilan have been given a week to explain. Che Din said Sin Chew Daily was given the letter for reporting a racially sensitive controversial statement involving former Bukit Bendera Umno chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail.
Suara Keadilan was issued the show-cause letter over a report quoting sources as alleging that Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan had become paralysed after undergoing coronary bypass surgery, he added.
“The ministry issued the letters yesterday and the three newspapers have one week to reply,” he said when contacted by Bernama.
Meanwhile, Sin Chew Daily confirmed in a report yesterday that it had received the letter on Thursday afternoon.
The Sun editor-in-chief Chong Cheng Hai confirmed that the newspaper had received a show-cause letter from the ministry.
He said it would reply within the seven-day deadline as stipulated in the letter.
PKR information chief Tian Chia said Suara Keadilan received the letter on Thursday evening.
All publications are given three warning letters if they are found to have breached guidelines before show-cause letters are issued.
The Home Minister is empowered to suspend or revoke their publishing permit if they fail to provide a satisfactory explanation.
In April, the ministry did not renew Tamil daily Makkal Osai’s permit. This was after its permit was suspended for publishing a graphically altered picture of Jesus holding a cigarette and a can of beer.
The permit was renewed a week later.
Sin Chew Jit Poh, as it was known then, was also among several newspapers that had their permits revoked during Ops Lallang in 1987, when 106 people were detained under the Internal Security Act. The other newspapers were The Star, The Sunday Star and Watan.
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