The mainstream media has once again been attacked for their alleged partisan take on the appointment of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's wife, to sit on a committee of a Chinese trade organisation.

Lim's press secretary Cheong Yin Fan said that the mainstream media has continued to highlight and prominently publish political attacks by BN against Lim over the issue, without publishing her boss' comments.

Lim's wife, Betty Chew (right in photo), has since rejected the nomination by the Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce (PCCC) to head the property services committee.

Lim then noted that the issue of a conflict of interest does not arise, because she has already rejected the post.

"Whilst the mainstream media has every right to do so and even take a partisan approach, it has unfortunately failed to be impartial by printing fully the chief minister’s explanation," Cheong said in a statement today.

Cheong was responding to the incessant attacks against her boss in the mainstream printed media over Chew's nomination to the committee.

Lim was upset that his critics had chosen to "hurt" his wife, and previously his son - through what he described as the “BN media” - to attack him politically.

He asked if his mother would be the next target of attacks to hurt his political career.

The PCCC has clarified that it chose to offer Chew the appointment as she is a practising lawyer in Penang, and that it has offered similar positions to BN-linked personalities.

'No longer any issue'

Cheong added that the mainstream printed media ignored one critical point, which Lim had raised in responding to the issue.

She said that like any organisation, the PCCC can nominate whomever they want to sit in their committees.

But since his (Lim’s) wife has rejected the nomination, there is no longer any issue, Cheong stressed.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media did not print the chief minister’s question of “why is there no similar news attention given to BN’s leaders wives, when there are even more widespread and interesting reports in the social media and the Internet?” Cheong said.

"This double-standards targeted against the Penang chief minister has intensified in the mainstream printed media both refusing to print his statements and highlighting blog attacks by BN against Pakatan leaders but not blog attacks by Pakatan against BN," she noted.

"The failure of the mainstream printed media to be independent and truthful, has resulted in increasing dependence on news on online and social media," she added.