Denying accusations that statements by the Penang CM’s office are either relegated to the northern region edition only, or not published altogether, the Chinese daily said any report published is left to the discretion of its team of editors.

In a strongly-worded statement published yesterday, the vernacular paper rebuked the Penang CM’s office, and especially Lim’s press secretary Cheong Yin Fan, for sending many letters accusing Sin Chew of not giving Lim’s statements due exposure in the national edition of the paper.

Calling such accusations “unreasonable”, Sin Chew said the Penang CM’s office has no right to dictate what is published in their paper nor which edition too.

Sin Chew also defended its coverage accorded to Lim and the Penang government over the past eight years, since the DAP-led government took over the state administration.

“The publicity we have given to Lim is as good as what we have also given to Cabinet members. He is also given good coverage in the northern edition of the paper, being a regular feature on the front page,” Sin Chew said in its statement.

The Chinese daily said news stories chosen for publication are determined by their importance and freshness as well. It is also important to know the relevance to the readers on a daily basis.

“Aside from that, we have found many of Lim’s statements to be repetitious in nature, going on about the same issues,” Sin Chew said, calling the allegations of bias made by Cheong in a letter which was published on its online news portal yesterday, as “childish”.

Among other things, Lim’s press secretary had expressed that the Penang CM’s office was not happy that the recent re-launch of the Komtar building, which houses the state administration offices, was not given due publicity in the national edition, but only limited to the northern edition of the paper.