Restrictions on foreign mags: Asean told to intervene
The Paris-based Reporters San Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) said it was concerned about the increase in censorship and intimidation against foreign publications in Asean countries.
The integration and economic development in Southeast Asia that your organisation defends also depends on the free circulation of information, said RFS general secretary Robert Menard.
RSF has asked Severino to intervene with the prime ministers of Malaysia and Thailand to help stop the restrictive measures taken against the magazines, he added in a statement.
The distribution of three American magazines here have been delayed here for erroneous reports linking Malaysia to the Sept 11 terror attacks on the United States.
Four issues of Newsweek and Time have been withheld while the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) faced restrictions on five of its issues.
Yesterday, malaysiakini reported that the latest issue of Newsweek was released for circulation.
Undesirable foreigners
In a related matter, RSF also called on Servino to intervene with the Thai governments decision to expel two FEER correspondents based in Bangkok.
The two journalists Shawn Crispin and Rodney Tasker were declared as undesirable foreigners and had their visas revoked.
The pair irked authorities with an article published in the Jan 11 issue about the tension between the Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra and the King.
On Feb 28, Thai senators considered that the article was not critical to the king, and that there was no reason to expel the two journalists, said RSF.
RSF claimed the Thai government had been regularly harassing the FEER for publishing several articles on the purported difficult relations between the premier and Thailands revered monarch.
The Jan 11 issue had also ruffled feathers in Kuala Lumpur, when one of its reports claimed Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad offered a conciliatory deal to jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim during a secret hour-long drive along the city.
