Malaysian Newspaper Shake-Ups Prompt Anxiety About Press Crackdown : Mahathir Attacks 'Negative' Reporting 
International Herald Tribune
July 20, 1998
Thomas Fuller

Following shake-ups at Malaysia's two highest-circulation newspapers, Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad criticized the local media over the weekend for publishing "negative" and "baseless" reports.

Mr. Mahathir said negative reporting was "counterproductive to national development and the mental well-being of the people."

Ahmad Nazri Abdullah, group editor of Berita Harian, the country's highest-circulation newspaper, resigned Saturday and Johan Jaafar, editor of the second-largest circulation newspaper, Utusan Melayu, resigned Tuesday.

Mr. Mahathir denied Saturday that political pressure had played a role in their resignations, but reporters, editors and the head of Malaysia's largest opposition party disagreed.

Lim Kit Siang, head of the Democratic Action Party, suggested the editors had been forced to resign because they had tried to promote independent, investigative and critical journalism.

"The removal of the editors in chief," Mr. Lim said, "are further signs of possible crackdown against an already very limited press freedom in Malaysia."

In what was perhaps a sign that the resignations were indeed politically linked, Mr. Johan submitted his resignation to the prime minister himself, and not to his immediate superior at his newspaper, according to the national news agency, Bernama.

As Malaysia's economic prospects worsen — the government has forecast negative growth this year, and several high-profile companies have filed for court protection against their creditors — government officials have become increasingly sensitive to criticism.

Mr. Mahathir, for instance, took local newspapers to task two weeks ago for reporting on problems at Kuala Lumpur's new international airport.

As a result, editors at local newspapers say they are more careful in deciding what they print these days. The last large-scale crackdown on the Malaysian press was in the late 1980s, also a time of slow economic growth. Mr. Mahathir's government shut several newspapers in 1987 and arrested more than 100 people, including Mr. Lim.

But reporters and editors say they do not expect another crackdown of that magnitude anytime soon. The recent resignations, they said, have as much to do with political maneuverings as with the issue of press freedom.

Mr. Mahathir said over the weekend that Malaysian papers should not copy the reporting styles of their Western counterparts.

"In the West, news reports are written without any consideration of morality and the implications on society but only aim to make the writers and newspapers popular," Mr. Mahathir said.

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