Thank you for carrying, in English and Malay, reports on the anti-Israel gathering in front of the US Embassy on April 12.

I stand corrected, but I get the impression from the reports that malaysiakini reporters were not present there. Or, did you have to rely on the rather slanted AFP report because you were constrained by some kind of directive to certain media not to report on what really happened at the gathering?

Unfortunately, AFP did not report the statements made by the Barisan Alternatif top leaders to the assembly after their meeting with the US ambassador. They stated that during that meeting holy war). I do not know what Mahfuz Omar, PAS Youth head, who was not a member of the delegation, told the crowd or the AFP reporter. But if he really said what the AFP reported, then I am sure he was only expressing his personal views.

The views of BA were officially stated in the BA memorandum and the statements made by the leaders to the assembly after meeting the ambassador. I hope malaysiakini could kindly publish the memorandum in full, and if possible, the statements made by (Opposition Leader and PAS president) Fadzil Noor and (Keadilan president) Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Malaysiakini also carried a report by Nash Rahman. I am most surprised that the report is really a verbatim translation of the AFP report that you published. To say the least, I think it is misleading (if not unethical) for any journalist to publish under his own name a report which in actual fact is merely a nearly full translation of another person's report.

Finally, a minor point regarding the number of people who participated in the gathering. In my estimate, and the estimate of many others (including a police officer), there were certainly more than 3,000 there. The crowd that crammed around the speakers platform was easily around 1,500. Across the road, those who lined up two or three persons deep, prominently holding banners and posters, there was surely about the same number.

Editors note: The original report mentioned above was from AFP (this was stated at the top of the report). It is however wrong to suggest that the reason malaysiakini used the AFP report was because we were constrained by some kind of directive from the authorities.

While we did send a journalist to cover the event, we decided later to use the AFP report since our team member was also filing another report on that day (due to the lack of human resources, our reporters often write two or three — sometimes four — news reports every day). And since AFP has already filed a report on the event — and malaysiakini has obtained the rights to use the news agencys contents — we decided to free our journalist to work on another report.

As for your complaint regarding the Bahasa Melayu version written by Nash Rahman, yes, the first half was based on the AFP report. This is however not against journalistic ethics so long as there is proper attribution to the source, which Nash has done. (Menurut laporan AFP, para penunjuk perasaan itu turut membakar bendera Israel...). The second half of his report did not come from AFP but from comments made directly by Wanita Keadilan and a Malay-based NGO, Teras.

Thus, Nashs version was not a mere translation of the AFP report. Did this report deserve a byline? Perhaps not. But being an Internet news website, we often feel compelled to put bylines on all of our reports, even our editorials, so as to unequivocally tell our readers that malaysiakini is not a team of anonymous writers and that we stand by every word we penned.

We are in no position to verify PAS Youth chief Mahfuz Omars remarks during the demonstration. However, we believe that the AFP reporter has quoted Mahfuz correctly. As for the exact number of participants at the event, and a few other issues, it is best to raise it directly with AFP.

Our decision on whether to publish the BA memorandum in full, and the statements made by opposition leaders Fadzil Noor and Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, will be solely based on nothing else but their newsworthiness.