Some demonstrators broke bricks with their bare hands, while others took beatings with sticks, and chanted “Long live the Red Shirts, crush Malaysiakini” and “Shut Down Malaysiakini.”

A heavy police presence kept the group away from the Malaysiakini building, which Red Shirts leader Jamal Md Yunos said on Friday he would tear down.

The demonstration was in protest against a leaked document in the US which showed a link between Malaysiakini and the Open Society Foundations of billionaire George Soros.

Jamal said today’s demonstration was not the last, as the group would continue protesting until Nov 19, the date for the Bersih 5 street rally in Kuala Lumpur.

The Red Shirts have said they would hold a counter-rally the same day, with Jamal promising to call it off only if the Bersih 2.0 electoral reform group similarly called off Bersih 5.

“If they go head, we too will be ready to gather even though there will be a confrontation between red and yellow. If they continue to be stubborn, we will be ten times more stubborn,” he told reporters at today’s two-and-a-half hour protest.

Jamal also urged the government to block any link between Bersih and Soros and accused Malaysiakini of being a “channel for Bersih and DAP slander.”

Malaysiakini’s editor-in-chief Steven Gan said he respected the right of the Red Shirts to protest peacefully, and was satisfied with the police’s response to a report lodged against the Red Shirts.

“We are proud that the police have secured the area by deploying sufficient police officers to control the situation.”

Gan however denied Jamal’s allegation that foreign meddling had resulted in Malaysiakini favouring the Opposition.

“You can ask any journalist here. I myself find it difficult to control editorial policy. They decide what is reported,” Gan said. “I am only one of 30 editorial staff here. It is impossible for anyone to say foreign meddling has influenced Malaysiakini.”