Clicking on to the Malaysian Government's new Web site is more like opening the pages of a dusty official manual than entering the cyberspace world of eye-catching images and instant information.

Since www.bkn.gov.my was launched at the beginning of last week "to counter negative and inaccurate reports about the country", the content of the site has been somewhat static - in fact, it has not changed at all. From a home page displaying the words Bulletin Malaysia above the national flag and a pastiche of pictures of old and new Kuala Lumpur buildings, the word masuk (enter) guides the visitor to a menu of departments and subject matter under such headings as "economy", "politics", "religion", "culture" and "security". The menu page has a photograph of Mahathir Mohamad with an unidentified person, captioned "We are not a beggar state, the Prime Minister says". There is no explanation of when or where Dr Mahathir made the remark.