Utusan gets RM1.6m reprieve from Umno
The embattled news publisher Utusan Melayu Group has received an RM1.6 million cash injection from Umno, according to National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Utusan branch chairperson Taufek Abdul Razak.
He revealed that the reprieve enabled the publisher of Utusan Malaysia, Mingguan Malaysia, and Kosmo! to pay salary advances of up to RM2,000 to its staff tonight...
The embattled news publisher Utusan Melayu Group has received an RM1.6 million cash injection from Umno, according to National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Utusan branch chairperson Taufek Abdul Razak.
He revealed that the reprieve enabled the publisher of Utusan Malaysia, Mingguan Malaysia, and Kosmo! to pay salary advances of up to RM2,000 to its staff tonight.
“You all know (Umno president) Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (photo, above) held a meeting with Utusan’s board members.
“As a result of our picket yesterday, we received an injection of RM1.6 million from Umno,” he told a press conference at the Utusan’s headquarters Kuala Lumpur today.
Yesterday, some 100 current and former Utusan staff picketed at the Utusan headquarters to demand payment of their salaries, which they claimed had not been remitted for up to three months.
The staff were also told that print editions of Utusan and Kosmo! would cease publication until an undetermined date.
Following that, Utusan Group senior management had supposedly held a meeting with Zahid yesterday. When asked, however, Utusan group executive chairperson Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir declined to comment on the supposed meeting.
At a separate press conference, Aziz said Umno had never intervened in the paper’s editorial matters since he had taken over.
He said Utusan Malaysia editorial staff are free to decide on the newspaper’s direction and not side only with Umno and denied that the daily still has ties with Umno.
“I never received any calls from Zahid asking for certain reports to be published; not yet. We are free, and we want to bring a message of unity and that we are not racists,” he said.
Utusan Group was previously owned by Umno.
In February, Umno, facing its own financial woes, sold a 31.61 percent stake to Aziz, who is the former Kulim-Bandar Baharu MP.
The stake was sold for RM6.65 million, representing a 65.2 percent premium.
