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Prophet Mohammed Cartoons: Censorship in Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria and Yemen |
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Written by Reporters Without Borders
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Friday, 10 February 2006 |
Reporters Without Borders today deplored the Malaysian government's decision to suspend the Sarawak Tribune daily newspaper's publishing licence for reprinting the controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in its 4 February issue. A tabloid in Indonesia was seized by authorities for the same reason.
"This measure is excessive, especially as the newspaper in no way intended to be provocative and reprinted the cartoons simply to complement its news coverage," Reporters Without Borders said. "The entire staff do not deserve to be punished like this. Although some of these cartoons may be found repulsive, press freedom is once against threatened in this case."
It was Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who yesterday ordered the suspension of the Sarawak Tribune's licence until further notice. The newspaper is based in the eastern province of Sarawak (on the island of Borneo). The New Straits Times newspaper said the entire cabinet shared Badawi's view that reprinting the "humiliating caricatures" was offensive and required a stern reaction from the government.
Badawi, who is also internal security minister and the current chairman of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, said reprinting the cartoons was "irresponsible and inhuman" for Muslims and gave a negative image of his country. Representatives of the ministry of internal security and information refused to give the foreign press any comment.
"We foresaw this reaction from the government and we will suspend publication as soon as we are ordered to," Polit Hamzah of the Sarawak Press Newspaper Group told the Associated Press. The group, which owns the daily, apologized for the decision to publish the cartoons in order to illustrate a report about the ongoing demonstrations in the Muslim world.
The editor present when the decision was taken, Lester Melanyi, a non- Muslim, was interrogated for two hours by the police, who are still investigating to see if a crime was committed. Melanyi resigned a few hours later. Meanwhile, the authorities in neighboring Indonesia ordered the withdrawal from sale of 3,000 copies of Peta, a tabloid weekly, in which the caricatures had also been reprinted. The police chief said he intended to prosecute the newspaper for "blasphemy."
Two weeklies, Yemen Observer and Al-Rai Al-Aam, were suspended in Yemen for reprinting the caricatures on 4 and 7 February respectively, while TV journalists were dismissed for screening them in Algeria. |
