I will consider whether to lodge official report against NST Miri reporter for concocting news report to NST management as well as Suhakam

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

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I said the NST online report was  completely baseless and most irresponsible as well as mischievous  and I called on the NST to institute an inquiry as to how such a fictitious report could be written up and published as news.

Malaysiakini yesterday reported that the NST Miri correspondent Johanness Ridu who wrote the news said he stood by his story.

The Malaysiakini report continued:
 

"'He did not say it in front of me alone,' he said.

"Ridu explained that Lim had spoken at the function in Mandarin and a fellow reporter from the Chinese daily, the Sin Chew Jit Poh, had translated Lim's speech for Ridu."

I have checked by phone with the Sin Chew Jit Poh reporter who covered the Miri DAP dinner function on Friday night, and she confirmed four  things, that :
 

• Ridu did not attend the Miri DAP dinner function where I spoke;
• I never said what Ridu attributed to me in his NST online report;
• Ridu had subsequently asked her about my speech at the Miri DAP dinner; and
• she did not provide Ridu with any information to become the basis of Ridu's false and concocted report.

In fact, in my speech at the Miri DAP dinner, I  did not touch on the DAP-PAS relationship. The unethical, dishonest and unprofessional conduct of Ridu in concocting the NST online report on Saturday is most disturbing, and I am considering whether to lodge an official report against the NST Miri reporter to the New Straits Times management as well as to Suhakam for  a gross violation of the principles of  free, responsible and ethical  press.

(21/1/2002)