KUALA LUMPUR (March 19): The Home Ministry has admitted that it had withheld the latest issue of The Economist but later lifted it and the weekly news magazine has now been released.
Apparently the "hold back" was over a picture of a gay couple kissing accompanying an article in the issue, according to minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
He was briefed by his officials that "the magazine is already released after they agreed to blacken the picture of the gay couple kissing.”
As such, the news magazine should now be available in book stores throughout the country .
When word got round that The Economist issue was withheld by the ministry, speculation was rife that it was because of the articles in the magazine which could have been seen by the authorities as "putting Malaysia in bad light."
Articles in the issue on Malaysia include the missing MH370, the Court of Appeal’s decision on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and what The Economist called a "crony capitalism index" where Malaysia is ranked at a very unflattering third position.
And in the past, Malaysian authorities have viewed several articles in the magazine as "negative on the country.”
This included a piece not too long ago which stated Malaysia as being "most vulnerable to external shocks as politics are detracting from the real need for subsidy cuts."
In September last year, The Economist ran an editorial piece which said if Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir were to win the Umno vice-presidency, "the anti-Najib forces could coalesce around him as a proxy for his father and a weakened Prime Minister could then be ousted in an internal putsch."
Mukhriz did not win but even before the Umno polls, his father former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had shrugged off The Economist report and accused the London based magazine as having “nothing good to say about anybody."
The Economist nonetheless is seen by many as a "respected and credible" news magazine.
Source: FZ
No comments:
Post a Comment