PROBE INTO MALAYSIAKINI'S PUBLICATION DEPENDS ON POLICE REPORT

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 22 (Bernama) -- The police will only investigate
Malaysiakini's misleading report on Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak if a
report was lodged.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said this when asked to comment on
the Internet news portal which published an article on Sunday, purportedly from
a 'Najib Support Group' containing a so-called manifesto supposed linked to
the deputy prime minister.

The news portal has since apologised to Najib.

Speaking to reporters at the Immigration Department's Aidilfitri
celebrations eld here, Syed Hamid said Malaysiakini's apology was insufficient
as it should be accountable for its publication.

"If you keep on putting in false reports and then you apologise, that's not
good...I think the media has to be equally responsible for what they are doing,"
he said.

On Monday, Najib's office denied that he had issued the manifesto, and
the report published by Malaysiakini therefore, was "patently false and
misleading".

Meanwhile, deputy minister Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said the
ministry would not issue any warning letter to the news portal on the issue
since
Malaysiakini was not a formal media which needed a publication licence.

He said, what was more worrying about the issue was the nature of the
reporting being practised.

"Whether you are the so-called mainstream media or alternative media, the
basic thing is the same, and that is responsible journalism...and responsible
journalism dictates that you must verify a statement before you publish it..
This is lacking," he added.

-- BERNAMA