A leading Chinese newspaper, Nanyang Siang Pau, has conspicuously censored Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's name in its news report on the "10 Worst Enemies of the Press" today.

The Nanyang report which quoted AFP and datelined New York, May 3, mentioned all the nine names from the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) list, including the top three, namely Sierra Leone's Foray Sankoh, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic, but has excluded Mahathir.

Mahathir has for the second consecutive year been named as one of the worst enemies of the press by New York-based journalists organisation CPJ, which released the latest list yesterday in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day ("[#1]Mahathir in top 10 enemies of press list[/#]", May 3).

A Nanyang editor told malaysiakini that the newspaper had originally decided to put "leader of Malaysia" in place of "Mahathir Mohamad"; however, it was later deleted by another editor.

Nevertheless, Nanyang today carried a report in a separate section of the newspaper quoting Human Resources Minister Dr. Fong Chan Onn, who had reacted to the inclusion of Mahathir's name in the CPJ list.

According to the report, Fong accused the Western powers of using the media to blacken Mahathir's image as they do not wish to see him as the spokesperson for the developing countries.

Fong also added that Mahathir is a responsible leader and that his actions in not wanting to burden the country and people with debts proved that he is "caring" of Malaysians.

He felt that the West is against Mahathir because the country did not accept aid from International Monetary Fund, but has managed to overcome its economic crisis independently.

Meanwhile, apart from the "censored" Nanyang report, none of the major Chinese, Malay and English newspapers reported on the CPJ's "10 worst enemies of the press" list.