Inisiatif Wartawan today turned down an invitation from Information Ministry parliamentary secretary Zainuddin Maidin to meet him declaring it has no confidence in his ability to remain impartial in any discussion on freedom of expression and freedom to information.

The group said it could not accept his invitation after he described active Malaysian journalists as being "dogs of Western media imperialists" recently.

"We thank Zainuddin for his interest in the contents of the memorandum submitted to Suhakam on May 3 but we have no intention to meet him or send him our memorandum.

"It will only be sent to persons and institutions that have a legal or popular mandate to act on the issues raised. They include the prime minister, home minister, the parliament speaker and members of parliament," said Inisiatif Wartawan in a statement.

Yesterday, Zainuddin said he wanted to meet the group of journalists who forwarded a memorandum to the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) last Friday calling for the repeal of restrictive laws.

He said he wanted to know which newspapers these journalists work for, adding that "I don't want the public to be confused by their claims".

He also asked "why these people did not submit their grievances through the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) or the National Press Club (NPC)?"

Inisiatif Wartawan said that the 581 journalists who signed the memorandum in 1999 and the 370 who signed it in April 2000 were not representing their news organisations.

"Their stake in the matter is a purely professional one they endorsed the memorandum as individual journalists or editors.

Individual choice

The group also rejected Zainuddin's assertion that Inisiatif Wartawan should act through the NUJ or NPC, saying that the union and the club do not represent all journalists and editors either.

"Our group believes in creating room for journalists of conscience to voice legitimate professional concerns to legally constituted institutions.

"Participation in Inisiatif Wartawan is an individual choice. Those who endorsed and submitted the letter to Suhakam took the initiative to do so," said the statement.

It added that the group would accept Suhakam's invitation to draw up a plan of action following last Friday's meeting with Suhakam commissioner Prof Hamdan Adnan.