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From: Thomas Fuller International Herald Tribune
Date: 05 May 1999
Time: 00:16:06
KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian judge issued a far-reaching gag order Tuesday barring news organizations from publishing anything but ''factual evidence'' presented during the imminent sodomy trial of Anwar Ibrahim, the dismissed deputy prime minister. Mr. Anwar, who is charged with ''carnal intercourse against the order of nature,'' was last month sentenced to six years in prison for corruption. Judge Abdul Wahab Patail said Tuesday the sodomy trial would begin June 7.
''No counsel, person or party, directly or through counsel, shall make any comment, statement or interview to any person in relation to the proceedings before the court or any matter related to it,'' the judge said.
''Reporters of any media organization breaching the order shall be barred from the court,'' he said, adding that news accounts should stick to a ''factual report of evidence or submissions.'' The judge issued the order just as journalists have begun to discuss government restrictions more openly.
At a conference on press freedoms Tuesday, Hng Hung Yong, the chief executive officer of the Sun newspaper, described how he was summoned for ''interviews'' with the secretive police intelligence service. ''I've been called many times in the past,'' he said.
Malaysian news organizations are tightly controlled compared to those in neighboring countries such as Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Editors say they routinely receive phone calls from government officials who advise them on what they should and should not publish.
On Monday, a group of journalists who said they were concerned that many Malaysians viewed the local press as ''a part of the government's propaganda machine,'' called for a repeal of a law that hinders press freedom.
In a letter signed by 581 reporters and editors and given to the country's second-most powerful politician, the journalists said the law, which requires newspapers to renew their publishing licenses annually, encouraged self-censorship. The law also allows the government to ''arrest without warrant any person found committing any offense under this act.''
In their letter to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the deputy prime minister and home minister, the journalists wrote: ''The arbitrary and absolute powers of the Home Ministry over the local press only serve to reinforce the impression that Malaysia is undemocratic, with an opaque and authoritarian system of administration.''
News organizations have come under increasing government pressure since the dismissal in September of Mr. Anwar, who had occupied the front pages of newspapers for years. In the months after his dismissal, Mr. Anwar was demonized in local papers and given little space, if any, to air his views.
As a result, readers turned to the Internet and other news sources. A newsletter put out by an Islamic opposition party increased its circulation from 65,000 to almost 300,000.
But despite the protests, many in the publishing industry say press control is necessary for racial and religious harmony in multiethnic Malaysia.