Malaysia suspends paper

2006-02-26 11:17

Kuala Lumpur - Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he has ordered the suspension of a third newspaper after it published a photograph showing Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Berita Petang Sarawak, the only Chinese-language evening daily on Borneo island, will be banned from publishing for two weeks starting on Sunday, Abdullah said in a statement issued late Saturday.

"The decision was made after Berita Petang Sarawak published an article entitled 'We are prepared for the jihad war' on February 4, which contained the caricatures," Abdullah said.

Malaysia's newspapers operate under government licenses that bar them from publishing potentially provocative material on religion, race and other topics. Abdullah also heads the Internal Security Ministry, which has oversight of the licenses, which are renewed annually.

The government earlier ordered the suspensions of the English-language Sarawak Tribune and Chinese-language Guang Ming newspapers for reproducing the cartoons.

Another prominent newspaper, the New Straits Times, avoided punishment for publishing a cartoon strip about the controversy surrounding the prophet drawings, after it offered an apology.

Muslims have denounced the cartoons. They were first published in a Danish newspaper in September, then reprinted by other Western media, mostly in Europe, in the name of free speech and news value. Muslims consider any physical representation of Islam's prophet blasphemous.

Berita Petang Sarawak editors could not be reached Sunday, but a journalist with the International Times, a morning paper by the same publisher, confirmed the suspension order.

Staff at the evening paper did not turn up for work on Sunday, said the journalist who only wished to be identified as Tan.

- AP