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Alert

Editor of independent Internet daily Malaysiakini.com faces "sedition" charge

(RSF/IFEX) - On 20 January 2003, RSF protested the police raid on the offices of the news website Malaysiakini.com, Malaysia's principal source of independent news. The police seized about 20 computers and partially blocked access to the website after it published criticism of the government in the form of an anonymous letter.


RSF called on Home Affairs Minister Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi to ensure that the Internet daily's equipment is returned without delay and that charges against the website's editor-in-chief, Steve Gan, are dropped. The authorities also blocked access to the part of the website containing the critical letter, but access was restored later on 20 January.

Gan was summoned to appear before police on 22 May to answer a complaint for "sedition" and "inciting racial hatred". He said the police raid was an attempt to shut down the website.

The anonymous letter, posted on Malaysiakini.com on 9 January, criticised the government's granting of special rights to the country's ethnic Malay majority and compared the ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) to the racist United States-based Ku Klux Klan. Police demanded to know who had written the letter, but Gan refused to disclose the author's identity on principle.

Malaysiakini.com, which was launched in November 1999, gets 100,000 visitors a day and has won international awards for its news coverage in a country where the media is controlled by government associates and is also subject to very strict laws.