KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Malaysia's opposition is crying foul over the ruling coalition's domination of the mass media in the home stretch before general elections.
A barrage of advertisements for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition has stirred familiar complaints by the four-party opposition that they are locked out of the mainstream media.
Newspapers this week have been blanketed with full page ads by Mahathir's coalition, some of them suggesting violence would erupt if the opposition made gains in the November 29 snap polls.
The opposition said newspapers refused to run their ads.
"We have been told verbally that none of the newspapers will carry our advertisements," said Rustam Sani, spokesman for the opposition Alternative Front coalition.
Newspapers have been packed with articles, editorials, advertisements and pictures of Mahathir's 14-party coalition and its accomplishments since it won power 42 years ago. Television and radio offer similar fare.
The opposition, called "the so-called Alternative Front" by the official Bernama news agency, gets the odd snippet.
FOCUS ON RULING COALITION
On Tuesday, 12 of 18 political stories on the first seven pages of the leading broadsheet, the New Straits Times, offered the BN's point of view. Two focused on the opposition. The other four were on general political topics.
Among the headlines were "We need a big win, says Dr M," "Opposition losing influence among students" and "Minister: I will explain what really led to Anwar's sacking." The last referred to Mahathir's jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim.
In Tuesday's edition of the Star newspaper, 11 of 15 political stories in the first four pages were devoted to the Barisan Nasional, with one on the opposition. The remaining three were on broad political issues.
The headlines included "Vote by apolitical group can help BN win, says Mahathir," "Daim: Opposition candidates are lightweights" and "Pak Lah: BN has a proven record."
Daim Zainuddin is finance minister, and Pak Lah is a nickname for Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
TIGHT CONTROL OF MEDIA
The mainstream newspapers, state television station RTM and private TV3 are either owned by the government or controlled by interests linked to Mahathir's coalition.
Malaysia's publishing law requires newpaper owners to apply for annual licences. It allows the government to shut down newspapers or withdraw publishers' licences indefinitely.
In 1987 The Star's publishing licence was suspended for five months after a government crackdown.
Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang calls the local media "worse than the worst gutter press in other parts of the world in their utter contempt for truth and decency."
An editor of one of the mainstream newspapers said he was trying to be as fair as he could, but there were limits.
"We try where we can to be balanced, to tell the other side of the story. But of course you don't expect us to match story for story on the Barisan Nasional and the opposition," he said.
Mahathir defends the local media, saying it counterbalances foreign reports criticising his coalition. "Freedom of the press means freedom not to report what they do not want to report," he said recently, characterising foreign coverage.
Political analysts and opposition leaders say candidates' exposure through television and newspapers could be crucial in converting fence sitters in the run-up to the polls.
A survey by The Star showed 42 percent of voters were still undecided.Nearly 80 percent of those polled in the survey said they obtained political news by watching the nightly TV news.
ISLAMIC TABLOID SNAPPED UP
One opposition publication that has made an impact is the Harakah tabloid published by the Islamic opposition party, Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS).
The paper's circulation soared after Anwar was sacked in 1998, underlining deep distrust of the mainstream media.
"Harakah and the Internet are the only channels for the opposition to reach the public," Zulkifli Sulong, first editor of Harakah, told Reuters.
He said the twice-weekly publication has a circulation of 320,000, which rivals that of some mainstream newspapers even though it is legally barred from newstands and is only supposed to be sold to PAS members.
Deprived of access to the local media, the opposition has seized on the Internet as its key tool in the information war.
"But the problem with the Internet is that there's an information outflow. There is so much material on both sides for fence sitters to absorb," said the webmaster of the opposition Democratic Action Party's (DAP) site.