KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign television crews covering the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim have been beaming their pictures through Singapore.

The reason: Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) and TV3, the two broadcasting stations designated to help send footage to their foreign stations, have stopped accepting tapes of Datuk Anwar's nightly speeches.

Cable News Network (CNN), AP-TV, and Reuters TV found this out last week.

They said that they were not told of the official reason for the refusal to beam certain tapes.

A member of the CNN reporting team said: "We were told that the feed time was not convenient. But later, the stations said they were prepared to beam tapes of the Commonwealth Games and other events in Malaysia, but not anything on Anwar."

In the past, no questions were asked when foreign TV crews approached the local stations for help in transmitting their footage.

To get around this problem, foreign TV stations have been paying individuals between RM1,000 and RM1,500 to rush the tapes to Singapore and beam it out through broadcasting facilities in the island.

Since the sacking of Datuk Anwar last week, the foreign TV stations have been giving wide coverage on the Deputy Premier and the speeches made by him.

Local and foreign journalists have been camping at his house to monitor his speeches as well as to be around so as not to miss his arrest should it happen.

But the reporters are feeling the fatigue of covering an event for eight days with many having left Malaysia.