NST given 7 more days to apologise

Six NGOs want the newspaper to apologise for alleging that they received foreign funds to destabilise the government.

PETALING JAYA: The New Straits Times has been given a further 7 days to apologise for their Sept 21 front page article on NGOs trying to destabilise the government.

Bersih co-chairman S Ambiga said that their lawyers have sent a letter of demand on Tuesday and the new time frame to apologise started from Tuesday (Oct 2).

Ambiga also said that a second NST article which held similar allegations was also published.

She said that it would be good if they received a good response, otherwise they would consider further legal options.

Last week, six NGOs asked New Straits Times to issue an apology within 48 hours over the front page report.

The NGOs were Bersih, Centre for Independent Journalism, Lawyers for Liberty, Merdeka Centre, Southeast Centre for E-Media and Suaram.

The NST article alleged that RM20 million was paid to several Malaysian organisations since 2005 and that these were attempts by foreign hands to destabilise the government.

A quick check revealed that the article was still up on NST’s website and has not been retracted.