Chief executive officer Premesh Chandran told Malaysia.CNET.com the government had seized upon a Bernama report which carried a story about a former Malaysiakini editor's allegation that the online media had received RM188,000 from a Soros-backed Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF).
He said the money was payment for a business deal between the Center for Advanced Media, Prague (C@MP), the technology division of MDLF, and Kini Technologies, the technology arm of Malaysiakini's publisher Mkini Dotcom.
"It's not even a link with Soros ... it's a business relationship with C@MP whose parent company MDLF received some funding by the Open Society Institute (OSI) which is run by Soros," Premesh said.
The Open Society Institute was established in 1993 to promote the development and maintenance of open societies around the world.
OSI does this by supporting an array of activities dealing with educational, social, legal, and health care reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues.
He reiterated that C@MP's project with Malaysiakini to develop online solutions for Third World Internet media was not influenced by Soros.
"MDLF for instance, receives funds from the United Nation Development Fund which also provides some development aid to Malaysia ... UNDP also receives some aid from OSI. Does that mean the projects in Malaysia are also funded by Soros?" Premesh retorted.
"The government seems intent on casting aspersions on our credibility when it seems to be losing the battle for the heart and soul of the public," he said adding Malaysiakini would continue to practise editorial independence unlike most mainstream media in the country.
Premesh said this could also be a ploy to undermine and distract Malaysiakini journalists in the carrying out of their duties.
Commenting on the recent resignation of the Web site's editor Chong Yen Long and his subsequent allegation that Malaysiakini was funded by Soros, Premesh said Chong should have resigned much earlier rather than a year after he joined Malaysiakini if he believed (the allegation) to be true.
"He was the editor ... he would have known about any alleged Soros link, if any, very early on and could have raised the matter then but he didn't," he said.
Malaysiakini stands by its statement that Chong resigned mainly because of a salary dispute and nothing more. Chong could not be reached for comments.
The online media began operations with a US$100,000 grant from the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa).
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