Sunday August 17, 2008
‘Show-cause letters unjustified’
KUALA LUMPUR: The Christian Federation of Malaysia has called on the Home Ministry to unconditionally withdraw the three show-cause letters it issued to the publishers of Catholic newsletter Herald.
CFM said the three letters were unjustified and an infringement of the fundamental right to circulate news within one’s own religious community.
“Christians believe that all of life – in its political, economic, social, cultural and religious aspects – comes under the sovereignty of God.
“Therefore, Christians have a duty to educate followers of the religion to discern God’s will and purpose by writing and publishing articles in church newsletters,” CFM chairman Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing said in a statement yesterday.
He added that the weekly news contained in the Herald was intended for Catholic Christians who were regular Sunday worshippers and was to help them relate their faith to wider concerns.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said the Herald had previously carried non-religious articles, but had never received any letter from the ministry before.
“There were even reports about events in the rest of the world, but all this while the Government had not asked it to show cause,” he said after launching the Public Complaints Bureau’s website in Putrajaya on Friday.
Dompok said he had not read the piece in contention, an editorial, but was told it had asked Catholics to pray for the Permatang Pauh by-election.
The ministry’s Publications and Quranic Text Control Division had earlier warned the Herald to stay away from politics.
The division said the publication should limit its content to religious issues as stated in its permit,
It added that further infringement could result in suspension or revocation of the weekly’s licence.
Tags: catholics, malaysia, the herald
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