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PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHKL #0365/01 0620647
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 030647Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6060
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS PRIORITY
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN PRIORITY 0112
RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 0162
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 000365 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/03/2016 
TAGS: PHUM KDEM ASEC PREL PGOV KISL KPAO MY
SUBJECT: CARTOON CONTROVERSY ENVELOPS MORE MEDIA SOURCES 
 
REF: A. KUALA LUMPUR 313 
 
     ¶B. KUALA LUMPUR 193 
     ¶C. KUALA LUMPUR 357 
 
Classified By: PolCouns Thomas F. Daughton for reasons 1.4 b, d 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: For the third time in a month, the Malaysian 
government has suspended publication of a daily newspaper 
that printed an image of a Prophet Muhammad cartoon.  The 
government-controlled New Straits Times (NST) managed to 
avoid punishment, however, after it issued an "unreserved 
apology" for publishing a syndicated cartoon that poked fun 
at the global Prophet Muhammad caricature controversy (ref 
A).  Meanwhile, two of Malaysia's four free-to-air television 
channels issued apologies for inadvertently broadcasting 
images of Muhammad cartoons in early February.  The 
opposition Islamic party PAS and several religious leaders 
continue to fan the cartoon flames, despite efforts by the 
government and mainstream media to put the controversy behind 
them.  PAS tried to organize cartoon protests on March 3 in 
mosques in each of Malaysia's 13 state capitals, while the 
northern state of Perak's government-funded religious council 
website posted an on-line poll (later withdrawn) asking 
readers whether Muslims should "hunt and kill, or launch war" 
against those who "insult the Prophet Muhammad."  Prime 
Minister Abdullah has signaled that the government will 
continue to monitor media coverage of racial and religious 
issues to ensure that GOM-defined constraints are not 
violated.  At least in the near term, editors will likely 
restrict their coverage to news that is "print to fit" within 
the GOM's evolving boundaries of acceptability.  End Summary. 
 
A Third Newspaper Falls Through Thin Cartoon Ice... 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2. (C) The internal security ministry suspended publication 
of the Chinese-language Berita Petang Sarawak newspaper for 
two weeks starting February 26 in response to its February 4 
publication of a "seditious" photo of a man reading a 
newspaper in which one of the Danish cartoons was clearly 
visible.  Berita Petang Sarawak became the third newspaper to 
have its publishing permit suspended over publication of 
Prophet Muhammad cartoons.  Earlier in February, the 
government suspended the Chinese-language Guang Ming Daily 
for two weeks for an infraction similar to that committed by 
Berita Petang Sarawak, and the prime minister, acting in his 
dual role as internal security minister, indefinitely 
suspended publication of the Sarawak Tribune for reprinting 
one of the caricatures (ref B). 
 
... While Another Skates Around It 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) After coming under fire for its February 20 
publication of a syndicated cartoon alluding to the Danish 
caricature controversy (ref A), Malaysia's second-largest 
English-language daily, the New Straits Times, issued a 
front-page, "unreserved apology" on February 24.  Within 
hours of the paper's appearance, PM Abdullah stated that the 
government would take no further action against the NST, 
which is owned by the ruling UMNO party.  The PM's decision 
to forgo action against the NST did not deter about 500 
protesters from holding a protest at NST's Kuala Lumpur 
offices following Friday prayers on February 24.  Supporters 
of PAS and of Anwar Ibrahim's Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) 
waved signs and shouted slogans that referred to the NST 
editors as "bastards" and agents of Israel and Singapore.  In 
a full-page analysis of its cartoon crisis, the NST's editors 
wrote on February 25, "That is PAS.  That is Keadilan.  In 
the name of Islam, they perform prayers and march from a holy 
place carrying placards that call people bastards.  What is 
so Islamic about pre-judging others and slandering them 
without any evidence?"  PKR leaders later distanced 
themselves from the demonstration, calling it "disgraceful" 
and claiming they had no role in organizing it. 
 
Offensive Cartoons Also Spotted on TV 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) In its adroitly worded February 24 "apology," the NST 
called the attention of the internal security ministry to 
several television broadcasts that had aired images of the 
banned Muhammad cartoons in early February.  According to 
media reports, all four of Malaysia's free-to-air television 
channels (state-owned RTM1 and RTM2, and UMNO-controlled TV3 
and NTV7) broadcast images of at least one Muhammad cartoon. 
The NST's move was widely viewed as a shot at the information 
minister, who led the charge against the paper's editorial 
staff over its syndicated cartoon.  The government is 
currently reviewing the allegations and is expected to decide 
soon whether any punishment of the stations is warranted. 
For its part, TV3 tried to head off a reprimand by airing an 
apology to its viewers on February 28 for "accidentally" 
broadcasting a news segment that showed one of the 
controversial images "for 13 seconds."  The channel also sent 
a written explanation of its actions to the energy, water and 
communications ministry.  NTV7 did likewise on March 1.  The 
two state-owned channels, RTM1 and RTM2, have not yet 
acknowledged that they aired footage of a Prophet Muhammad 
cartoon. 
 
Other Cartoon-Related Developments 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) The official, state-funded website of the religious 
council of Perak (a large state in northern peninsular 
Malaysia) recently posted an on-line, Malay-language poll 
asking readers to choose the most appropriate action to be 
taken against those who "insult the Prophet Muhammad."  The 
poll allowed readers to choose among six answers, including, 
"hunt and kill them or launch war against them."  The on-line 
poll was pulled from the website March 2 after a disparaging 
March 1 report about it by Internet-based news provider 
Malaysiakini.  The poll had attracted little public attention 
and only about 175 "voters," 22% of whom supported the most 
extreme response. 
 
¶6. (C) PAS planned to organize further protests against the 
Muhammad cartoons on March 3 at designated mosques in each of 
Malaysia's 13 state capitals.  An intervening decision by the 
government to raise gasoline prices (ref C) changed the theme 
of the protests, however, and PAS representatives told us 
late March 2 that demonstrations would occur only in Kuala 
Lumpur and three state capitals. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶7. (C) Both the government and the mainstream media want to 
see the end of the cartoon saga, which has absorbed 
considerable time and attention here over the past month. 
The "guilty" newspapers have been quickly punished and news 
coverage has moved on to other issues.  The TV broadcasts 
that displayed the Muhammad cartoons are now more than three 
weeks old; any punishment of the channels at this point will 
likely be mild, swift and meted out with little fanfare.  PAS 
and a few Islamic religious leaders have tried to keep the 
controversy on life support, mostly in a bid to rally 
political support, but new issues arising daily are making 
that increasingly difficult. 
 
¶8. (C) The cartoon controversy has played out in the larger 
context of a slow relaxation of press controls that began 
after Abdullah Badawi took office in late 2003.  In order to 
build a general air of believability and be commercially 
competitive -- both with each other and with the Internet -- 
the government-controlled media have attempted to provide 
increasingly objective and complete reporting on national 
stories.  The public demand for higher quality news reporting 
has become increasingly risky for government-controlled media 
organizations to satisfy, however, since highly sensitive 
racial and religious issues typically provide the subtext for 
the most provocative and best-selling stories.  The cartoon 
controversy prompted Prime Minister Abdullah to wield one of 
the government's most potent legal weapons for controlling 
the media in order to signal that boundaries still exist on 
press freedom when it comes to racial and religious issues. 
For the near future, we expect news editors to respond by 
restricting their coverage of such issues to news that's 
"print to fit" within the GOM's slowly evolving notions of 
acceptability. 
LAFLEUR