KJ: Why can Guan Eng bar journalists but not me?

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has hit back at DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang over the latter's criticism of his move to bar Malaysiakini from an event yesterday.

Lim had described Khairy's actions as shocking, but the Umno youth chief said that both the DAP veteran and his son, Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng, were guilty of the same practice.

"Kit Siang has forgotten that his son usually bars mainstream media reporters from covering his press conferences.

“So who is practising double standards here? So his son can do it, but I can't,” Khairy was quoted as saying by New Straits Times.

He added: “Unlike them, I did not embarrass the reporter. My officer politely asked her (the reporter) to leave the venue.”

Khairy's allegations against Guan Eng appear to refer to a 2011 ban on Utusan Malaysia from covering the state assembly proceedings for one session.

The ban - imposed by a bi-partisan committee including Umno assemblypersons - followed an Utusan report over renovations to Guan Eng's official residence which was deemed false. The ban has since been lifted.

While Guan Eng and Kit Siang are not known ban journalists from covering them, they are known to dismiss questions from those working for news organisations deemed to be pro-BN.

More recently, at a press conference in Penang on Sept 20, Guan Eng had curtly rejected a question from a reporter.

"I don't want to answer questions from BN media because many times BN media have asked soalan bohong (questions based on lies)," he said.

Kit Siang, meanwhile, had on separate occasions harangued journalists from TV3 and Antarapos.

The order for Malaysiakini to leave Khairy’s event came after his aide solicited questions from reporters before the press conference.

The aide had said that Khairy does not want to answer questions from Malaysiakini and that the reporter was not allowed to be there.

In explaining his actions, Khairy said that he does not have a problem with alternative media with covering his events as long as they gave fair and balanced reporting.

“The report must be accurate. But this particular online portal (Malaysiakini) likes to twist my stories.

“I have no issues with the other alternative media who have been writing about me and criticising me,” he said.- Mkini