Makkal Osai Gets Nod To Renew Permit
The Tamil daily, Makkal Osai which had an application for the renewal of its publishing licence rejected on April 16, was today given the nod to renew the permit. According to the General Manager of the newpaper, S.M. Periasamy the Makkal Osai will start publishing again this Saturday.Probably as a result of the numerous appeals as well as the furore the ban had aroused, the Home Ministry must have had a 'change of heart' and relented. The ministry could well have been taken aback by the uproar and objections to their high-handed act as well as the absence of a good enough reason to justify the refusal to issue a permit.
Following the rejection, Makkal Osai had filed an appeal against the decision by the Home Ministry. Former MIC deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam had then met with Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.
Makkal Osai submitted an application for renewal on July 16, 2007, three months before its permit expired on Oct 15 last year.
The newspaper started operations as Tamil Osai in 1981, and later changed its name to Makkal Osai in 2005. It has a daily circulation of 52,000 copies and 95,000 on weekends.
The renewal while good news for those espousing free speech, would probably be a sad day for the daily's arch-enemy Samy Vellu.
Besides Makkal Osai, the other two Tamil dailies are Tamil Nesan and Malaysia Nanban.
Labels: Intolerance, Media Matters., Well Done
posted by The Malaysian. at 4/24/2008 03:19:00 PM
1 Comments:
In the new Malaysia post-March 8, there is a heavy political price to pay to deny a newspaper a publishing permit for no good reason.
The Minister still has the power, but the days when that power could be wielded with impunity are over.
The former arrogance - "If you don't like the government decision, try to challenge us at the ballot box" is gone.
If they are not careful, the next ballot box challenge could send BN to the Opposition bench for a long, long time.
Next Step - Hindraf 5 & ISA.
One of PR's first resolutions for the new Parliament should be to ask for all ISA detainees to be released or at least given put to a judicial review.
PR does not have the numbers to carry the resolution, but BN will pay a heavy political price for it.
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