Malaysiakini was asked to leave the media room of the Umno annual general assembly for not possessing press passes issued by the party's secretariat.

Its team of eight journalists were told they were not allowed to use media room facilities by one of the secretariat's officers.

This was despite being told that Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had promised Malaysiakini press passes during an exclusive interview on Oct 5.

But a day later two passes were issued to Malaysiakini's journalists Regina Lee and Salhan K Ahmad who had interviewed Tengku Adnan prior to the AGM.