KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 — Faced with widespread criticism over its suspension of weekly paper The Heat, Putrajaya came out today to remind its detractors that the decision was merely a temporary one.

In a statement here, the Home Ministry pointed out that it was still studying the publisher's reply to its show cause letter.

It said, however, that it takes seriously the actions and attempts of certain parties who have continued to attack Putrajaya following the suspension of The Heat's printing publication.

“At this moment, the Home Ministry is studying the reply to the show cause letter and will make an appropriate and fair decision on the publication of The Heat as soon as possible, without being influenced by any parties,” the Home Minister's press secretary Brig-Gen Fadzlette Othman Merican Idris Merican said in a statement uploaded on the Home Ministry's Facebook page today.

The Malaysian Bar had urged Putrajaya last Saturday to abolish the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984 and to establish an independent Media Council instead.

Malaysian Bar president Christopher Leong had criticised the recent suspension of The Heat that was ordered shortly after the paper reported on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “big spending” nature in its November 23 to 29 issue, calling it an “unwarranted attack” on press freedom, as well as on freedom of speech and expression.

Leong had stressed that the PPPA should be repealed as it is an “archaic” law that violates the right to freedom of speech and expression, as enshrined in Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.

“The Act has been used and abused to influence, bully, intimidate, threaten and punish the press. Such legislative and governmental control of the press, including licensing regimes, should end,” he had said.

Malaysia fell 23 rungs to a historic low of 145th out of 179 countries in the 2013 World Press Freedom Index released earlier this year by Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom non-profit organisation, which cited increasingly limited access to information in the country.