Committee Set up to Watch Internet News
11/20/97
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Headline: Committee Set up to Watch Internet News
Source: USATODAY
Date: 11/20/97
Copyright 1997 Associated Press This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Malaysia to Monitor Net News
[November 20--USATODAY] Malaysia has set up a committee to watch for any
inaccuracies in foreign reports about the nation carried on the Internet.
"We will decide on the appropriate action to correct any wrong perceptions
in the reports," Tengku Alaudin Abdul Majid told The Star in an interview
published Wednesday. He is deputy secretary-generalof the Culture, Arts
and Tourism Ministry.
The committee will send a weekly report to the Prime Minister's office,
the newspaper reported.
Malaysia has criticized some reports as inaccurate, including one six
months ago that said people were killed while working on a dam project in
Sarawak state on Borneo Island. The government says no one was killed or
injured.
Meanwhile, Information Minister Mohamed Rahmat said he would meet with
officials of Cable News Network next week to complain about scenes it
televised on the haze that has hung over Southeast Asia for months.
"I hope they will replace these visuals with those reflecting the actual
situation now in Malaysia where the haze has cleared," the national news
agency Bernama quoted him as saying.
In Atlanta, CNN spokeswoman Lori Konopka said she knew of no such meeting,
but defended the network's coverage.
"CNN covered the condition which existed over the region just like we
would any other news story around the world. We did have government
spokespeople as well as environmental experts, and we stand by our reports
as being fair," she said.
Malaysian officials have blamed a decline in tourism on media reports
carried worldwide on the haze, which was caused by Indonesian forest
fires.
Moonsoon rains have cleared away much of the polluting, health-threatening
smog, meteorologists in Singapore said Wednesday.