Saturday, June 21, 2008

Selangor cancels Utusan subscription - The Star

KLANG: Jun 21, 2008

Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has ordered an immediate end to the subscription of Utusan Malaysia, its Sunday edition Mingguan Malaysia, and all publications under the Utusan group of companies.

Khalid’s political secretary Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad signed a one-page circular instructing all local authorities, district offices and agencies to cease the subscription of the publications.

When contacted, Nik Nazmi said that the decision to end the subscription of the publications was done due to the “unfair reporting and its choice to play the racial card.”

“Based on certain news articles, the Selangor Government found that the newspaper had chosen to play the racial card and it did not practice balanced reporting.

“This approach is certainly putting the people and state government at logger heads and it is not healthy,” he said.

Nik Nazmi also added that there was no gag order issued to the heads of departments on news releases to the Utusan media.

A check at a few local authorities revealed that the administration unit had cancelled the advertisement contracts and informed newsvendors to stop the delivery of Utusan publications.

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