For the first time ever, Malaysiakini has been provided with formal accreditation from Umno to cover its annual general assembly, but there is a catch.

Only two accreditation cards - one for a reporter and another for a videographer - were issued, despite 17 applications being submitted.

NONEIn contrast, Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia received 103 cards while foreign news organisations such as China’s Xinhua received three cards.

It is understood that another online news portal received only two cards, while lesser-known Mandarin-language news website Laksou received four.

Limiting Malaysiakini’s manpower to just two is likely to hamper proper coverage of the five-day event.

This year, the party’s secretariat had already warned that it would impose strict measures to dissuade ‘squatters’ at the audio-visual room used by media personnel to follow the proceedings.

Previously, it was reported that the party secretariat would limit the number of accreditation cards issued, based on how much coverage each media organisation gave its general assembly in the previous year.

NONEThis was in response to the overwhelming number of applications received this year.

Over the past few years, Malaysiakini had been unsuccessful in its applications for media accreditation cards to cover the Umno general assemblies, and its reporters had relied on squatting in the audio-visual room.

This went on uninterrupted for several years - until last year, when unaccredited media organisations were given the boot from the room and only given a handful of accreditation cards were provided after several appeals.