NSTP and Berita Harian can end their agony of how to restore credibility and circulation without giving fair coverage to Opposition and NGOs by confining its circulation to UMNO members only
Media Conference Statement (3)
- launching his 27th publication "Constitutional Case of the Millennium"
by Lim Kit Siang 

(Petaling Jaya, Saturday): It has been reported by the Singapore Straits Times that the senior editors
at The New Straits Times Press (NSTP) have been given a six-month ultimatum by the owners of the publishing group to improve circulation and revenue or face more personnel shake-ups like the recent removal of Datuk Kadir Jasin as its editor-in-chief.

The Singapore Straits Times reported that the newly-appointed executive vice-chairman of NSTP,  Datuk Abdul Rahman Maidin had served the six-month ultimatum on New Straits Times editor, Ahmad Talib  and editor of Berita Harian, Rejal Arbee,  to reverse the steady decline in circulation and revenue of the publications in the stable, notably the NST and Berita Harian.

There is no chance that the NST and Berita Harian can restore  credibility and circulation, when they have become even more pallid and anodyne since the removal of Kadir Jasin, where any report of statements and speeches by Barisan Alternative leaders is regarded as anathema, putting the editors concerned in mortal fear of their careers.

One way out for the NST and Beritan Harian to get out of this dilemma as to how to regain credibility and circulation while not allowed to give fair coverage to Opposition and NGO news is for  the imposition of a new condition in the permits of these two newspapers to limit their circulation to UMNO members only!

(22/1/2000)

*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman