Fahmi denied that Awesome TV was singled out, saying that several others had to be dropped from the parade for similar reasons, including e-hailing company Grab and popular beverage supplier, Milo.

“Several others have been invited or have asked to be invited to join (the parade) but we can’t accommodate all of them, there are too many. Grab had appealed to be included, we also had to drop Milo.

“So it’s not just one company that we’ve had to exclude, but many. We had to cut down on the number of participants due to the limits placed on the duration of the parade,” he told reporters at Dataran Putrajaya today.

Yesterday, a source working at the TV station told FMT they were puzzled by the communications and digital ministry’s decision to exclude them from the event.

However, the source said the company will not appeal against the government’s decision.

Awesome TV released a statement later, stating that they had been dropped from the parade without any reason given. They were only informed of the matter in a letter dated Aug 23, signed by the ministry’s secretary-general Fauzi Isa.

The letter said the decision was made by a committee on National Day celebrations which was chaired by the minister.

The TV station described the decision as “going against the government’s aim to promote unity among Malaysians”, and also against Putrajaya’s promise to empower the media.