Although Malaysian censors have eased up on continuously withholding the distribution of foreign weekly Asiaweek for up to three weeks per issue at one point, a top executive of the Hong Kong-based periodical is dissatisfied as there is still some delay.

"Things are back to normal but we still see delays especially in the distribution of the July 20 issue. We are still not happy about that," said Asiaweek executive editor Richard Hornik.

"It was published (in Hong Kong) on the 18th and should have arrived (in Malaysia) at least on the 23rd. So we are seeing a delay of nine days when it should have come out last week," Hornik added.

Asiaweek first raised Mahathir's ire when it published an unflattering photo of him in its Jan 26 issue, which he said attempted to portray him as an 'idiot'.

A couple of months later, the magazine began experiencing delays in its distribution as home ministry censors took weeks to release the issues when it used to take only a day.

Although there has been no response to Hornik's letters requesting for meetings with ministry officials, he said he was still 'available'.

"I think we have made this quite clear," he said.

Asked if the aggressive reporting on Malaysia might have prompted the delays, Hornik replied, "there are just a lot of good stories in Malaysia".

He revealed that the three largest markets for Asiaweek were Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Review normal

While things are still uncertain where Asiaweek is concerned, the distribution of another Hong Kong-based weekly which faced the same problem, the Far Eastern Economic Review, remains normal, with its Aug 2 issue released yesterday.

The Review got into hot soup after an article in its March 1 issue speculated that Umno could be losing its grip on a half-century of political dominance. For that, the weekly faced delays that went on for at least three months.

However, Review representatives met with officials from the information and home ministries in April and appeared to have reached an understanding over the matter.

The US government was recently reported in the Review to have stipulated that Malaysia look into the distribution woes of foreign publications here, among other 'issues', in reply to Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Syed Jaafar Albar's request for a meeting between Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and US president George W Bush.

Syed Hamid did not confirm nor deny the condition but in a press conference yesterday said, "nobody should try to tell us how we should rule and govern our country".