Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been identified as one of the 39 "predators of press freedom", according to the latest list released by international media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres.

Others on the list include Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe (left), Congo President Joseph Kabila, China President Jiang Zemin, Afghan-Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The Paris-based RSF last released a similar list of 31 names in May. Mahathir was among the eight new names added to the list yesterday.

RSF said Mahathir curbed press freedom in Malaysia by rewriting the Printing Presses and Publications Act as well as the Internal Security Act to bolster his campaign against the opposition media.

The 16-year-old organisation also accused Mahathir of being responsible for denying renewal of the publishing permits of four publications last year, among others the pro-reform magazines Detik , Al-Wasilah and weekly tabloid Eksklusif .

"This year, two independent newspapers, serving the large Chinese community, were bought by people close to Mahathir and their editorial staff taken over," said the organisation, with obvious reference to the Nanyang Press Holdings.

Nanyang Press, publisher of dailies Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press , were taken over by MCA, a component party in the ruling Barisan Nasional, in May.

The controversial RM230 million deal was executed by MCA's investment arm Huaren Holdings and had generated strong protests from Chinese community who feared the editorial independence of the dailies would be compromised.

Mahathir later conceded that the government had been unhappy with the dailies as they were "instruments of the opposition" which had caused the defeat of the ruling coalition in a by-election. But the premier denied giving directive for the purchase of the newspapers.

'Enemies of the press'

For the past three consecutive years, Mahathir had been named on a list called 'Enemies of the Press' drawn up by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

CPJ who releases the list in conjunction with the World Press Freedom Day every year, said Mahathir was "openly contemptuous of press freedom" and had manipulated Malaysian media to "cement his hold on power".

But the premier had repeatedly stressed that the media have to help the government in implementing national policies and that unregulated media could act irresponsibly at the expense of national interests.

RSF said Mahathir, who once blamed overseas weekly Asiaweek for deliberately publishing a picture of him which makes him looked like an "idiot", also delayed the circulation of the news magazine and Far Eastern Economic Review .

Despite the effort by independent journalists who tried to utilise the Internet to "flee the harassment", online daily malaysiakini has become the government's key target, it added.

"One of its correspondents has been jailed since April, and its reporters are often denied entry to official press conferences," said RSF.

In April, malaysiakini columnist Hishamuddin Rais, who is also a film-maker and social activist, was arrested together with nine other reformasi activists and opposition leaders for allegedly trying to overthrow the government via militant means.

Of the 10, four were subsequently released but the rest including Hishamuddin were sent for a two-year detention under the ISA which permits indefinite detention without trial. Hishamuddin has been held under the controversial security law for 212 days.

Malaysiakini journalists have also periodically faced expulsion from press conferences called by certain government ministers, the latest was yesterday when an aide of MCA chief and Transport Minister Dr Ling Liong Sik ordered the website's reporter to leave.