Home Minister said every paper has crossed the line in reporting sensitive issues one time or another

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein plans to meet chief editors of newspapers on the reporting of sensitive issues.

He said he wanted to ensure that the chief editors exercised caution in the reporting of sensitive issues on race and religion and that they understood they would be held responsible for their action.

Commenting on a report published in Utusan Malaysia recently alleging that certain groups wanted to make Christianity the official religion,

Hishammuddin said: "There are times when the Malay community were unhappy with the reporting of the Chinese newspapers (on sensitive issues) and vice versa.

"It is the responsibility of the chief editors to ensure that their organisations do not go beyond the boundaries set in reporting such issues," he told reporters.

Despite the clarity of the country's publishing laws and guidelines, he said, "every paper has crossed the line (in reporting sensitive issues) one time or another. Now it's Utusan (which has crossed the line)."

Hishammuddin said that it was difficult to control the flow of information on sensitive issues, especially with the emergence of the new media.

"If it (the information) does not make it to the mainstream papers, it will somehow or rather get to the new media like online news portals, Facebook and the short messaging service," he said.

World Bank is useless: Dr Mahathir

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad described the World Bank as “useless”, saying today that it was politically motivated for putting out a report that pro-Bumiputera policies are stunting the country’s economy.

The former prime minister said the World Bank report was politically motivated as it wanted a change of prime minister.

“We have been critical of the World Bank since my time. We said that they were useless. They dislike us and want to have their good friend become prime minister”, seemingly referring to Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, a former chairman of its development committee.

The World Bank said on Thursday that more than one million Malaysians live abroad as policies favoring the Malays are holding back the economy, causing a brain drain and limiting foreign investment.

World Bank senior economist Philip Schellekens was quoted as saying that foreign investment could be five times the current levels if the country had Singapore’s talent base.

He said Malaysian migration was increasingly becoming a skill migration with one-third of the one million-strong Malaysian diaspora now consisting of the tertiary educated and expected the trend to continue.

World Bank is useless: Dr Mahathir

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad described the World Bank as “useless”, saying today that it was politically motivated for putting out a report that pro-Bumiputera policies are stunting the country’s economy.

The former prime minister said the World Bank report was politically motivated as it wanted a change of prime minister.

“We have been critical of the World Bank since my time. We said that they were useless. They dislike us and want to have their good friend become prime minister”, seemingly referring to Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, a former chairman of its development committee.

The World Bank said on Thursday that more than one million Malaysians live abroad as policies favoring the Malays are holding back the economy, causing a brain drain and limiting foreign investment.

World Bank senior economist Philip Schellekens was quoted as saying that foreign investment could be five times the current levels if the country had Singapore’s talent base.

He said Malaysian migration was increasingly becoming a skill migration with one-third of the one million-strong Malaysian diasporas now consisting of the tertiary educated and expected the trend to continue.

Japan economy contraction in Jan-June 2011

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the country’s economy will likely shrink in the first half of 2011 due mainly to stalled output in the wake of Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

“We are now expecting production and GDP will decline in the first quarter and the second quarter,” Shirakawa said in the interview conducted yesterday, echoing the views of most private-sector economists who also see a first half contraction.

The focus is now on how quickly the Japanese economy will return to growth. This largely depends on when supply chain disruptions will ease and to what degree power shortages could affect factory output during the peak summer period.

Shirakawa was quoted as saying supply constraints would likely continue at least until August before recovering.

“Once supply capacity is recovered, then the Japanese economy is moving back to the original growth path,” Shirakawa said in the interview.

The BOJ is expected to hold off on any further easing of monetary policy next week but will likely reiterate its readiness to act if the quake’s damage threatens Japan’s return to a moderate economic recovery.

In a twice-yearly outlook report to be issued at next week’s rate review, the BOJ will cut its economic forecast for the current fiscal year, which began on April 1, from its January projection of 1.6 per cent growth to reflect the impact of the quake, sources familiar with the BOJ’s thinking have told Reuters.

But many in the bank agree with the dominant market view that Japan will avoid a contraction for the full fiscal year as growth is expected to pick up from around autumn. — Reuters