Police seized computer terminals from Malaysiakini's newsroom Monday after ruling party activists accused it of inciting racial hatred by publishing a letter comparing the party to the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist group in the United States.

Opposition politicians, rights groups and press freedom campaigners strongly criticized the move.

Deputy Home Minister Zainal Abidin Zin said anyone unhappy with the raid could challenge it in court. He also said government promises to allow freedom of expression on the Internet were not a license to say anything. "We promised -- if they are good. If they are not good, we just cannot lay down our head," he told a news conference in reference to ministers' pledges to leave the Internet alone.

"Where there are any parties committing acts which are unjust against society, the government must act responsibly to defend the rights of the people," he added.

The youth wing of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's party reported Malaysiakini to police last week after it carried the letter, which questioned Malaysia's long-standing policy of granting special rights to the ethnic Malay majority.

A Malaysiakini report quoted editor Steven Gan as saying the letter was neither seditious nor likely to provoke racial unrest. "The government's pledge not to censor the Internet has been shot to pieces," Gan added in a statement.

Malaysia wants to be an information technology and Internet hub like India, which has developed a wealth of home-grown talent.

Rights group Suaram contrasted Malaysia's stance on freedom of speech with that of other nations in South East Asia. "Neighboring Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines have taken huge strides in freeing their media, and some have gone further in debating a Freedom of Information Act," Suaram Executive Director Cynthia Gabriel said in a statement.

"Malaysia, however, remains unashamedly authoritarian, and continues with its slow-yet-effective strangulation of the few open spaces still left available to its society to express its thoughts and opinions," she said.

Journalists from Malaysiakini, launched in November 1999 and claiming a daily readership of 100,000, are denied press accreditation and are often barred from official news events.

Malaysia's mainstream media are mostly pro-government. The country also has a tough print and publications law as well as other laws covering libel and sedition, and a wide definition of what