In Malaysiakini sedition probe, leaders and authorities collide
Critics have slammed the use of the draconian Sedition Act against a reporter and an online news portal, saying that news organisations have a right to publish articles that are of public interest.
They said that it was the duty of a journalist to report news and reproducing the quotations of another does not warrant a sedition probe against the writer.
Penang police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi today said Susan Loone, a Malaysiakini reporter, and the portal will be investigated under the Sedition Act for publishing allegedly seditious material.
This comes after Malay rights group Perkasa lodged ten reports against the portal and Loone over a news report related to a police crackdown on Penang's Volunteer Patrol Unit (PPS), which was said to have defamed the police.
Former New Straits Times group editor-in-chief Datuk A. Kadir Jasin said that for a statement to be considered seditious, it must contain a certain element of provocation.
"So it must be made clear what is seditious about the article and whether this is to be investigated under the Sedition Act or not," he told The Malaysian Insider.
"It is a reporter's right and the media's right to report the story based on public interest."
The sedition probe against Malaysiakini, said lawyer and activist Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, showed that the culture of bullying and oppression has seeped into the country.
"I think it is shocking the level to which we have fallen when we can act so oppressively towards a reporter who was merely doing her job.
"It seems to me that the only way the government knows how to treat their citizens is by use of force, oppression and bullying. Not by engaging the people or talking to them."
Perkasa and 13 other groups that called themselves "The Coalition of Penang Malay Representatives" lodged the reports against the portal and Loone at the Jalan Pantai police station in Penang about 6pm yesterday.
They urged the police to investigate the article headlined "Disoal siasat selama 4 jam, dakwa dilayan seperti penjenayah" published on Monday on Malaysiakini's Bahasa Malaysia site.
The news report is a translation of Loone's article, "Exco man grilled for four hours, treated like a criminal", which was published the same day.
"There was nothing wrong with she had written and clearly the government is now using their non-state actors to do their 'dirty work'," Ambiga said, adding that no action has been taken against Utusan Malaysia for spewing racism.
Lawyer Andrew Khoo (pic, right), who is the Bar Council's Human Rights Committee co-chair, said he could not understand what was seditious about the article.
"To me, if all the reporter is doing is just reproducing words by way of quoting another person, I don't see how that can be viewed as seditious."
He added that journalists have a duty to report news and should be protected by the state and by law when doing their jobs instead of being prosecuted.
Centre for Independent Journalism director Sonia Randhawa called on police to drop its probe against Malaysiakini and Loone, saying that this was a "blatant attempt" to intimidate the news outlet.
"In a classic case of shooting the messenger, Perkasa is attempting to initiate prosecution against Malaysiakini.com for what they have reported," she said in a statement today.
Ambiga, meanwhile, lamented that the prime minister's call to think about the future generation and the legacy being left for them during his Merdeka Day speech, was not being taken seriously.
"The legacy I see so far is one of bullying and oppression. Abusing power shows that they do not understand what it means to hold the responsibility to power
"The powers-that-be better look at history to see what arrogance and abuse of power has done to many leaders and to its country."
The former Bersih co-chair also urged Malaysians not to be intimidated by Putrajaya's continuous oppression tactics following the slew of sedition charges and investigations against opposition politicians, academics and now the media.
"I hope Malaysians will not be cowed but resist oppression. As far as I am concerned, right-thinking Malaysians will stand by Susan." – September 3, 2014.
