Editors of Malaysian-Chinese daily resign in aftermath of police nude video
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) _ Two top editors of a Chinese-language newspaper in Malaysia have resigned for wrongly identifying a naked woman seen in a secretly shot video in police custody as Chinese.
The Nov. 23 report in the China Press daily, reproduced by other local and international media, became a national scandal and briefly soured relations between Malaysia and China. The woman in the video later turned out to be a local ethnic Malay.
China Press announced in its Thursday evening edition that editor-in-chief Chong Chung Nam and executive editor Wong Siew Peng have quit, and published an apology for the error, apparently after Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government threatened to revoke its printing license.
'Two senior China Press editors take full responsibility for the mistake,' the newspaper said. 'China Press also tender our deepest apology for the mistake and inconvenience caused due to this report.'
The New Straits Times newspaper said the Internal Security Ministry sent a letter to China Press last month, asking it to give reasons why the permit to publish its widely circulated evening edition should not be revoked indefinitely.
Malaysian newspapers and other print media must obtain a license from the ministry to operate under a law decried by media activists as an impediment to press freedom.
The digital video of the woman was shot on a camera-cellular phone by an unidentified person. It showed the naked woman performing squats in front of a policewoman in a cell. The video, widely circulated in Malaysia, created an uproar and forced a government inquiry into police practices.
From her appearance, the woman was believed to be a Chinese national or an ethnic Chinese Malaysian. But a 22-year-old Malay Muslim later testified at a government-backed inquiry in December that she was the woman. Police have confirmed her identity.
Officials said the newspaper's mistake damaged the country's ties with China, which lodged a formal protest, prompting the Malaysian government to apologize.
The government inquiry into the scandal is expected to present a report by Jan. 15 on whether police flouted procedure and violated the rights of the woman.
