Politicians should respect press freedom and allow the mass media to disseminate information to the public, without favour or fear, Gerakan Secretary-General Teng Chang Yeow said in a statement.
Teng said the mass media, particularly newspapers, would not want to get into trouble unnecessarily with the politicians.
“In fact, journalists would want to carry out their jobs or duties responsibly and avoid any head-on clashes with anybody, whether they are politicians, political parties, government, businessmen or non-government organizations,” Teng, who is a former Penang state executive councilor, said.
Thus, Gerakan is surprised that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has publicly declared that he would consider barring the New Straits Times from covering his press conferences or functions in response to articles in the newspaper which he alleged were slanderous and false.
Lim had also urged the people of Penang to boycott the NST.
Teng said it was wrong for Lim to call for the boycott as NST “has a big circulation and boycotting the newspaper is like boycotting the people and denying them information.”
“If the articles are slanderous and false as claimed by Lim, he can take legal action against the writer and the company. There is no need for him to be emotional over the matter unless he made the outburst just to gain cheap publicity,” said Teng, reminding Lim that as Chief Minister, anything he said carried weight.
At a Suaram Penang forum on Sunday, State Executive Councilor Chow Kon Yeow said the NST’s articles on Lim were wrong and that the Chief Minister’s office had stopped inviting the NST to its functions.