KUALA LUMPUR, 24 March 2009: The Home Ministry’s suspension of Harakah and Suara Keadilan would not make much of an impact on the opposition alliance as more people prefered news portals as sources of information, Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said today.
He claimed the move was also politically-motivated to block both publications from reporting news on the Umno assembly and the upcoming three by-elections.
Instead of taking such move, Khalid said the Federal Government should have given the people more liberty in terms of expression and ideas as he believed that society was matured enough to subscribe to different opinions.
“It is really unfair and there is no valid reason to suspend the newspapers. People find it distasteful.
“According to survey, those below 45 years of age, prefer to go to the internet to obtain news that they feel are more reasonable,” he added.
The menteri besar said this when asked to comment on the ministry’s decision to suspend the tabloids for three months for allegedly publishing sensationalised and defamatory articles.
Meanwhile, Khalid, who had earlier launched the Real Estate Convention here, told reporters that the state government planned to revive certain abandoned housing projects and turn them into welfare homes for the needy.
“We do have some low-cost units which were abandoned. We want to revive them and find a mechanism on how to manage them, either by the state government or the NGOs (non-governmental organisations),” he said.
He projected to have two or three of such projects initiated this year. — Bernama
See also: Harakah, Suara Keadilan suspended three months
