By Neville Spykerman
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — The Home Ministry has warned it will revoke Tamil Nesan’s annual licence if it continues provocative coverage of last Sunday’s police shootout where five Indians were killed.
Tamil Nesan managing director S Vell Paari has today defended the paper’s coverage, pointing out the shootout has been well covered by other newspapers and the online media.
In a press statement, he confirmed that the country’s oldest Tamil newspaper had received the letter which stated their license would be revoked without further notice if the paper carried on with such news.
The latest development comes in the wake of a decision by Government to backtrack on an earlier decision not to approve next year’s publishing permit for Catholic Newspaper Herald, which is locked in a lawsuit against the ministry over the right to publish the word “Allah” to mean “God” for Christians.
According Vell Paari, who is the son of MIC president Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu, the ministry was concerned their report which included a press statement issued by MIC Youth Information Chief S Subramaniam would provoke Indians and affect the country’s harmony.
But he said the Tamil daily, which was established in 1924, was only reporting what had transpired.
“I’m baffled on how news published by us is going to provoke Indians, when almost all other mainstream media, both print and online, carried the same facts, gave the same prominence and used the same vocabulary for the story,” Vell Paari said in the statement.
“The issue is also being hotly debated in various Blogs and online networking sites like Facebook” he added.
Vell Paari noted the article also related to issue that affects his community and Tamil Nesan had the right publish it, just like other dailies.
“As far as Tamil Nesan is concerned we have maintained a status of fair comment and had only published what happened that day. Nothing more and nothing less,” he said.
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