4:23pm Thu Jan 30th, 2003

Two major international organisations representing the newspaper industry have supported malaysiakini for refusing to divulge the identity of the letter writer which resulted in a controversial police raid o要 the o要line news daily's office last Monday.

The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and the World Editors Forum (WEF), in a joint letter to the premier, said that "malaysiakini has conformed to internationally accepted standards of a free press in publishing letters from its readers and in protecting its sources".

"We respectfully call o要 you to ensure that malaysiakini's property is immediately returned and that the threat to pursue legal action against the company is halted," they said in the statement sent to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday.

WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, represents 18,000 newspapers and its membership includes 71 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 100 countries, 14 news agencies and seven regional and international press groups.

It organises the WEF, an annual forum for senior editors to exchange ideas and information about the business of editing newspapers.

Attempt to censor

The two organisations expressed concern that the police raid and the eviction order against malaysiakini are an attempt to censor the o要line newspaper.

The police raided malaysiakini's office o要 Jan 20 and seized 19 computers - including four servers - for "forensic examination" over a "seditious" letter published o要 the news website.

A day after the raid, malaysiakini was dealt with another blow when it was slapped with an eviction notice from its landlord PC Suria for having committed "activities which contravene the laws of the country".

The raid was in response to a police report lodged by Umno Youth over the letter written by a reader which the youth movement claimed had questioned Malay special rights in the country.

Fifteen central processing units (CPUs) have been returned to malaysiakini in stages, but no word yet o要 the fate of the servers.

The protest statement from WAN and WEF was part of the unprecendented public condemnation from both local and international groups.

Among those which have issued protest statements include the 10,000-strong Malaysian Bar, Aliran, Hakam, Suaram and international organisations - the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance and London-based Amnesty International