Malaysian police, officials, accused of trying to silence journalists
Malaysian authorities are using intimidating measures to threaten and punish the media.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said on Monday, citing “a worrying pattern’’ of journalists being summoned by police to give statements about their reporting.
The NUJ, along with the Centre for Independent Media and the Independent Media Movement, accused officials of curbing media space and attempting to intimidate media into silence.
This was after four journalists from online news outlet Malaysiakini were questioned by police during the past two weeks.
Reporters from three other outlets, including one of the country’s main television news broadcasters, have been subjected to similar tactics this year.
Malaysiakini was fined around 125,000 U.S. dollars in February for comments posted by readers on its website, a levy described by its editor as chilling.
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A state of emergency was declared in Malaysia in January, suspending parliament and enabling the government to rule by decree.
The government in March banned the publication of what it views as ‘fake news’ about the coronavirus pandemic or emergency rule, bringing in punishments of up to six years in jail.
Malaysia dropped 18 places in the latest Reporters Without Borders global press freedom index, the biggest fall of any country.
This was after journalists with foreign media groups were questioned by police on reports about the country’s treatment of its migrant worker population during the pandemic.
Local laws, some inherited from British colonial rule, “allow the police to investigate or arrest people for a wide range of activities or speech that the government dislikes,’’ Human Rights Watch noted earlier.
