RPK too Hard for BBC Hardtalk

BBC drops RPK from Hardtalk to appease Putrajaya

By Adib Zalkapli

August 30, 2010

Raja Petra, too hot for the BBC. - Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — The BBC has cancelled its plan to have Raja Petra Kamarudin on its Hardtalk programme this Wednesday. According to a statement posted on Raja Petra’s website Malaysia-Today, BBC’s Bridget Orborne had called the blogger yesterday to inform him of the decision.
The statement claimed that BBC decided to drop Raja Petra after the network’s lawyers advised them that the show would expose BBC to legal action and upset the Malaysian government.
“Bridget added that the questions they would delve into, which would be very sensitive in nature and critical of the government, would run foul of the Malaysian government,” said the unsigned statement.
“The fact that the programme would be accessible in Malaysia, said Bridget, makes this a problem for the BBC,” it said.
“It looks like RPK is too hot even for HARDtalk and BBC said it is a rare occasion that they have had to drop a programme,” the statement added.
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and former Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar are local personalities who have appeared on Hardtalk, a 30-minute interview programme.
Raja Petra, who was facing a criminal defamation trial, was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal in November last year by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court after the police failed to serve warrant of arrest.
He was believed to have fled the country in May last year after he was charged with defaming Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the prime minister.
He had allegedly published an article linking the murder of a Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu to her.
Raja Petra made his first public appearance in London last July with Pakatan Rakyat leaders where they spoke to over 200 people.
MI