Loke's aide apologises for rant against RTM

The press secretary to Transport Minister Anthony Loke has apologised for his tirade against RTM's coverage of the government's national-level Chinese New Year open house event in Seremban earlier this month.

In a Facebook post today, Lim Swee Kuan noted that the procedures of the state broadcaster have now been made clear to him.

He added that he supported media independence, and hoped that RTM would become a better broadcaster in the future.

On Feb 17, Lim took to Facebook to suggest that RTM's live coverage of the Chinese New Year event was "sabotaged" because it did not include speeches Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Aminuddin Harun and Loke, the highest-ranking federal minister from the state.

"Not a single word of the speeches of Aminuddin and Loke were broadcast... what is this if this if not sabotage?"

"Heads must roll over the highly possible sabotage against the government administration," he said at the time.

Loke subsequently pointed out that he did not instruct his press secretary to issue the statement.

Eventually, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo clarified that RTM's policy for such events was only to broadcast the prime minister's speech live, which the station did.