KUALA LUMPUR: The National Press Club Malaysia (NPC) held a charity dinner on Saturday (April 13) to raise funds for the Journalist Welfare Fund (JWF).

Organising chairman Datuk Mokhtar Hussain said it was high time that the dinner was held, as JWF was in need of a new injection of funds.

"The main reason we are holding this event is that we needed to raise funds for JWF.

"We had one charity dinner some five years ago, and after we gave out contributions to many journalists in the country, the fund started to decrease, so it is time to do something," Mokhtar told the press at the dinner, held at Hotel Istana here.

He said NPC expected to raise more than RM100,000 from the event.

There were plans to make the dinner an annual event, but sponsors came to give contributions at other times as well, he added.

He said since JWF was started in 2006, about 100 journalists had received contributions from the fund.

He said the main sponsors were the QI Group of Companies, with Sunway Group, Forest City, UEM Group and F&N Beverages Marketing also helping out.

Other organisations supporting the event included BIMB Holdings, Bank Rakyat, Malaysia Airport Holdings, Sime Darby Plantations, Pos Malaysia, Bank Simpanan Nasional, Hong Leong Bank, Constance Westwood, Parkson Corporation, RHB Bank, Sirim, Nikon Malaysia, Maybank and AirAsia, he added.

Titled "An evening with Datuk Nash", the event saw guests being entertained by singer Datuk Nashrudin Elias, better known as Nash, who performed alongside bandmate Rahman Mahmood, better known as Man Kidal.

Others present at the dinner were NPC president Datuk Ahirudin Attan, Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) chief executive officer Nurini Kassim, and Bernama editor-in-chief Datuk Zakaria Abd Wahab.