State-owned Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) has no plan to tender an apology for the time being over its airing of the controversial caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.

Malaysiakini had earlier obtained a footage proving that RTM's TV2 Mandarin news had on Feb 3 showed a man reading a newspaper with two of the controversial caricatures.

It is believed that its sister station, TV1 had also used the footage provided by an international news agency.

RTM director-general Abdul Rahman Hamid told malaysiakini that the station will not follow private television networks TV3 and ntv7 to apologise just yet. The two station apologised on Tuesday for the similar blunder.

"Instead we will wait for the government's decision first. If we made a mistake, we will apologise but we have to be cautious now because the matter is under government's consideration.

"At the same time, we have to see what is the views of the boss," Abdul Rahman said in reference to Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin, or popularly known as Zam.

Zainuddin has appeared reluctant to comment on the issue.

When told that TV3 and ntv7 had apologised prior to any government decision, the director-general who oversees RTM under his national broadcasting department responded: "But they don't have a minister, they only have a chief executive officer, we have many hierarchy because this is the government's station... I am not in a position to make decision."

He said the information minister to date has not given instruction to RTM to apologise because the Internal Security Ministry "may or may not" call RTM for explanation over the incident.

No action against staff

Abdul Rahman also noted that RTM has not received any show-cause letter from the government and he has no idea when the official decision on RTM will be known.

RTM has prepared a detailed report on the matter and handed it to the minister to be tabled in the cabinet.

The DG also assured that the station will not take any action against RTM staff who inadvertently use the offensive images prior to any official decision.

"That footage was provided by an international news agency. Our focus is to show how the world react to those cartoons and it so happen that one slot showed a reader carrying a newspaper containing the caricatures.

"It is not us that want to show the caricatures. Furthermore, all (television) stations used the same footage provided by the news agency," Abdul Rahman asserted.

Despite saying that, he however would not want to confirm whether TV1's Warta Pagi (morning news) had also used the same footage.

" New Straits Times only said TV2 showed the caricatures," said Abdul Rahman.

Since the caricature controversy hit Malaysian shores, Sarawak Tribune , Berita Petang (another Sarawak-based daily) and Guangming Daily have been suspended.

Tribune was the worst hit after the government decided to slap it with an indefinite suspension despite two front-page apologies.

Chinese dailies Guangming and Berita Petang have been suspended for two weeks.

PM accepted NST's apology

Last Monday, the NST became embroiled in the controversy by publishing twice a foreign cartoon strip lampooning the caricature controversy.

The daily, which Umno-linked Media Prima Bhd is a significant shareholder, later made an 'unreserved' apology on its front-page.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he accepted the apology on the grounds that the cartoon strip was not one of the offensive caricatures and that the daily had made a front-page apology.

However, some have accused the government of practising double standards.

Following this, TV3 and ntv7 - also owned by Media Prima - followed suit and aired their apologies during the opening segments of their 8pm news broadcasts on Tuesday.

The caricatures, deemed blasphemous by Muslims and which sparked protests around the world, was first published by a Danish newspaper late last year.