Suara Keadilan gets permit, sets target
Doubling the circulation will be PKR’s target for its organ Suara Keadilan after it finally was issued a printing permit today.
Information chief Tian Chua said the party hopes to boost circulation to 200,000 within six months or less than a year.
He was speaking to reporters outside the Home Ministry in Putrajaya this morning, after a 15-minute meeting with officials of the publishing division.
Chua, who submitted the annual fee of RM500 during the meeting, said the party had received a standard printing permit.
“We are glad about this improvement. This is a standard permit and not a permit that limits (circulation) to party (members),” he said.
Since it was inaugurated eight years ago, Suara Keadilan has been published twice a month from the PKR office based in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur.
The application for a printing permit in 2005 received no response from the ministry, leaving the 32-page publication vulnerable to confiscation by the authorities.
On several occasions, PKR members and distributors were allegedly threatened for being in possession of the ‘illegal’ publication.
In three languages
Chua said Suara Keadilan will now be published in two more languages - English and Chinese – apart from Bahasa Malaysia.
“Our content will only change based on the demands of our readers. We will disseminate information that is not covered by the mainstream media,” he said.
“This is a part of our continuous efforts to fill in the gap and the role not played by the mainstream press.”
The editorial team is led by Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, better known as Zunar, and three journalists.
Over the weekend, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar had announced that he had approved the permit.
This was in line with his pledge to boost press freedom by relaxing the licensing regime under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.
Another proposal is to issue a one-off licence to media companies, so that they do not have to apply for annual renewal of the publishing and printing permits.
However, this still leaves the minister in full control of the publications, with absolute power to revoke the permits. There is no provision for judicial review of the minister's decisions, but those affected may submit an appeal to the ministry.
Last week, the ministry has banned Tamil daily Makkal Osai for not following "government guidelines" by refusing to renew its publication permit.
