Malaysiakini today refuted allegations made by its former news editor Chong Yen Long that the independent news portal received funds from international financier George Soros through the Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF).

Malaysiakini chief executive officer Premesh Chandran in a press statement this evening said the allegations were "entirely baseless".

"We once again strongly deny that malaysiakini has any direct or indirect link with the Soros-funded Open Society Institute,"said Chandran.

Chong, in an interview with national news agency Bernama , alleged that malaysiakini received RM188,000 from the MDLF which he "believed to be well-funded by Soros."

Chong, whose resignation was effective yesterday, had said that he was going public because the MDLF funding was kept secret from senior staff like him after international news magazine Far Eastern Economic Review incorrectly reported on Feb 1 that malaysiakini 's received funds from Soros.

Chong said that he was "uncomfortable with the lack of urgency in malaysiakini 's administrators to clarify the company's link with MDLF and Soros".

He also said that the information was finally released at a company meeting on Feb 17, adding that he felt a "high sense of being let down".

Technology investment

In his statement, Chandran explained that the funding of RM188,000 mentioned by Chong was a payment made by the Centre for Advanced Media, Prague (C@MP) and was a business deal between malaysiakini 's technology arm Kini Technologies and C@MP to develop open source software for C@MP as part of its software application group C@MPW@RE.

He added that one such application in the process of development is called Adengine , an integrated online advertising engine that will power various forms of online advertising including banners, classified and directory ads, discount coupons and other new online ad formats.

" Malaysiakini disclosed this fact in our report on our annual accounts for the year 2000, released last Tuesday," he added. (See [#1] Accounts 2000 [/#]).

Chandran said C@MP is the technology arm of venture capitalist MDLF, which does has among its 20 funder organisations, the Open Society Institute funded by Soros.

No link to speculator

"However, following the Soros controversy last month, we have been assured in writing by C@MP project director Martin Hala that none of the funds for the software development project originated from the Open Society Institute," said Chandran.

He said that malaysiakini had always implemented a policy of transparency and accountability.

"The very fact that we disclosed the matters above to all malaysiakini staff, including Chong, at our quarterly company meeting shows our commitment to these policies. We stated very clearly at the company meeting that we have been assured by C@MP that there is no link between our business deal with C@MP and funds from the the OSI," said Chandran.

Chandran said that Chong had chosen to ignore these facts entirely and had instead come up with his own interpretation of the matter.

"We believe that his resignation was related to other disagreements with malaysiakini management, including his unhappiness over his pay rise," he added.

Soros controversy

The Soros controversy started when Review , stated in an article titled 'Leveling the Field' in its Feb 8 edition that malaysiakini was among the media organisations in Asia which received funds from Soros.

Chandran had then immediately issued a press statement stating that the Review 's report was not true.

The inaccurate detail appeared in the introduction to an interview with Soros conducted by Review 's Nayan Chanda in Davos, Switzerland on Jan 28.

Both the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa), from which malaysiakini received a grant, and Soros' Open Society Institute issued statements that malaysiakini was not a recipient of any funds from the American financier.

Review carried a clarification on its website but it was described as "inadequate" by Chandran as it suggested that malaysiakini received funds indirectly from Soros, which was not the case.

Chandran said that malaysiakini , launched in November 1999, was financed from a mix of different sources, including grants from the Bangkok-based Seapa, a regional network of journalist organisations.

Soros, a notorious currency speculator, was blamed for causing the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

As a result, he was labelled as a "moron" by Mahathir. Soros has used part of his wealth to fund charity projects around the world through his Open Society Institute.