Frustrated by the apparent inaction of the police force against personnel who had allegedly resorted to excessive violence during the Bersih 3.0 rally, netizens have embarked on an initiative to identify those said to have assaulted a press photographer.
An image of four police personnel said to have attacked Huang An Jian, a photographer with Chinese newspaper Guang Ming Daily , has been uploaded to a Chinese-language Facebook fanpage dubbed ‘We Fully Support PKR
‘Time for revenge! Share this! Four policemen who attacked Guang Ming Daily reporter!’ reads the posting.
In just 24 hours, the image has attracted over 3,000 'likes' and over 200 comments. It has been shared by more than 6,000 Facebook users.
The rally in Kuala Lumpur on April 28 was marred by violence involving both police personnel and protesters.
The police have since published the photographs of 91 protesters , requesting them to come forward to assist in investigations into alleged acts of violence. Other photographs appear to show protesters ‘charging into a police barricade’.
At least 13 journalists, photographers and videographers had been attacked during the rally. Most of them claimed to have been roughed up by the police even though they produced their media tags and identified themselves as media personnel .
Many photographs or video clips depicting alleged police brutality have been uploaded on the Internet by eyewitnesses.
The police, however, have only published photographs of one such incident and urged eyewitnesses and victims of assault in that incident to contact them.
This sparked an outcry netizens who criticised the police for conducting lopsided investigations and trying to protect errant personnel.