Putrajaya U-turns on call to advertise in Utusan

In just over a month after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak (pic, left) pitched for companies and government agencies to advertise in the Malay daily Utusan Malaysia Putrajaya has now made a U-turn on the call.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said the federal government had never recommended that Utusan be given priority for advertisement purposes.

"The government only stressed that advertisements be placed in main newspapers in Malaysia so that the message can achieve its objective," he said in a written reply to Sim Tze Tzin (PKR-Bayan Baru) in Parliament.

He said to date, RM1.55 million worth of advertisements had been placed in Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia by agencies and departments under the Prime Minister's Department for 2011 and 2012.

In 2011, RM732,972.92 was spent, and in 2102 the amount increased to RM822,638.04.

When officially opening Utusan's new headquarters on September 13, Najib had said newspaper companies cannot rely solely on circulation to stay in business and that advertising was needed to keep the 75-year-old newspaper afloat.

"I hope all government agencies, GLCs and private companies, especially those owned by Bumiputeras, will show their support by giving more advertisements to Utusan. Only this will help keep Utusan on track," the prime minister was reported as saying.

His call was soundly criticised by the DAP, which said it was another example of Putrajaya wasting taxpayers’ money in an attempt to bail out the paper.

DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua said then that Najib’s call showed that the paper had lost readers due to its racist stand.

The Pakatan Rakyat leadership has been wary of the Umno mouthpiece's style of reporting and several have sued it for its reports.

Among the Pakatan leaders who had taken Utusan to court for defamation and won are opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, Seputeh MP and former Selangor exco member Teresa Kok from DAP, and former Perak menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin from PAS.

Last January, Anwar won a suit against Utusan after High Court judge Datuk V.T. Singham found that the daily had defamed him in two articles.

The court ruled that the articles, which had implied that Anwar had intended to legalise homosexuality, was a gross mistaking of facts in complete disregard for Anwar’s reputation.

The court also found that the news articles were lacking in responsible journalism and that the newspaper took high risk in publishing them on the front page, without verifying the truth.

In February, the Court of Appeal upheld a High Court decision ordering Utusan to pay RM200,000 in general and aggravated damages to Lim over a defamatory article.

Lim, who is Bagan MP and Air Putih assemblyman, had sued Utusan for defaming him in an article entitled, “Kebiadaban Guan Eng” published on December 20, 2011.

Utusan Malaysia columnist Datuk Chamil Wariya and Utusan Melayu openly apologised to Teresa Kok in the High Court in June as part of a settlement in a defamation suit filed by Kok.

The court also ordered Utusan Melayu to pay costs of RM50,000 and to publish an apology in the daily.

Kok had filed a RM30 million defamation suit against Utusan Melayu, which publishes Utusan Malaysia, and Chamil on December 12, 2008.

The suit was over a short story written by Chamil, who is also Malaysian Press Institute CEO, which allegedly referred, either directly or by innuendo, to Kok. The story titled YB Josephine was published in Utusan on October 12, 2008.

In July, the Kuala Lumpur High Court awarded Mohammad Nizar RM250,000 in damages in his suit against Utusan over the WWW1 car registration number issue. In his statement of claim, Nizar said the defendant had implied that Nizar had tried to incite the people to hate the Sultan of Johor.