Malaysiakini was asked to leave a Youth and Sports Ministry event in Cheras today.

The marching orders came after Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin's aide solicited questions from reporters before a press conference.

Following this, the aide returned to the reporters' desk and asked Malaysiakini to leave the venue.

"I apologise. YB does not want to answer questions from Malaysiakini, nor are you allowed to be here.

"I have to ask you to leave. I apologise," said the aide.

The practice of press secretaries or aides approaching reporters for questions before press conferences by government officials is not unusual in Malaysia.

This reporter was tasked with asking Khairy the following two questions:

- Will Umno Youth suspend the two Sabah Umno youth leaders who were arrested by the MACC recently, pending investigations;

- What was Khairy's view on Dr Mahathir Mohamad's allegedly anti-Bugis remarks

This is the first time Malaysiakini has been removed from a Youth and Sports Ministry event. Malaysiakini is typically barred from the Prime Minister's Office, Treasury, the Defence Ministry and press conferences at the MCA headquarters.

Khairy was supposed to address the "ignition ceremony" for the MyCorps @ South Asia programme, which saw him receiving Malaysian youth volunteers who had returned from humanitarian missions in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang expressed shock at the practice of press secretaries soliciting questions from journalists.

"I have been in politics in Malaysia for 52 years but this is the first time I have heard of such a pernicious and disgraceful pre-media conferences practised by Umno-BN, ministers and leaders!

"Who invented such a pernicious and disgraceful practice and when did it begin?" Lim said in a statement.