I wish to take to task to a local women's NGO Awam and Very Bemused for trying to

condemn local newspapers for their sexual slant reporting on the on-going Noritta Samsudin trial.

The NGO and the writer, by using moral pressure and 'Asian Values' as ammunition, are trying to garner support to suppress our local media editors from reporting trial details as they see fit.

Firstly, it is unfair for them to claim that newspapers have a so called 'moral duty' to adhere too. Who defines what this moral duty is? Why is this moral duty applicable for a rape-cum-murder case, but not applicable for Anwar Ibrahim's trial reports which were buried in the middle pages?

Should this moral standard be based on Islam, Christianity or Buddhism? Or should we just stick to the undefined boundaries of the so called 'Asian Values'? The fact remains that newspapers should be allowed to print and publish what they see fit without fear or hindrance from any organisation.

Defining a standard can be very dangerous as it allows for certain parties formulating a code to exert even more pressure on our already rigid and strict censorship rules. Let's not open a Pandora's box. Editors should be given the leeway to decide what they can or cannot publish.

Very Bemused and Awam can make a choice not to read the newspapers capitalising on the sexual details of Noritta case. Nobody is forcing them to read those newspapers, nor those articles. The choice of what to read should be left to the individual.

Similarly, The Star and the New Straits Times should be given the choice to decide what to publish. Both parties will have to deal with the consequences of making that choice. For the newspapers, it could mean an overt blow on their respective images and affect circulation. Freedom of speech always comes with a price.

If the parents of Noritta feel that these newspapers have unfairly sensationalised the trial and defamed their family in anyway, they have every right to take the papers to the courts and sue them.

Let us not further restrict our press.