Home Civil Society Voices 2013 Civil Society Voices Malaysian government can’t stand free media: Seapa

Malaysian government can’t stand free media: Seapa

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A Malaysian news weekly has been suspended indefinitely by the Home Ministry, apparently for an article criticising overspending by the country’s ‘first couple’, says Seapa.

the-heat-is-suspended

A notice on the front page of The Heat website informed readers that the newsweekly’s 21 December issue would not be released as scheduled, in compliance with an order from the Home Ministry.

The Malaysia Insider reported that the suspension came after The Heat received a show cause letter, summoning the editor David Lee Boon Siew to the Home Ministry office and ordering him to tone down its report.

The letter did not specify the article that caused the issuance of the order, but said it was believed to be related to a front-page article titled “All eyes on big-spending PM Najib”, on the expenditures of the Prime Minister and his wife, which appeared on The Heat’s 22-29 November issue.

SEAPA believes that this act of the Home Ministry is plain and simple political intimidation of the media.
Despite the Prime Minister’s pronouncements supporting media freedom, there has been very little concrete action towards this end, including the repeal of the repressive Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).

The Home Ministry has also consistently disproved this pronouncement, not only through this unjustified suspension of The Heat, but also its futile insistence to defend its arbitrary denial of a printing permit to online newspaper Malaysiakini, and on two occasions, seizing copies of news papers earlier this year.

The suspension of The Heat – over an article concerning the legitimate public interest of state expenditures and an alleged abuse of political privilege – demonstrates the government policy to keep media under strict control is still very much in force.

READ MORE:  Media digesa mematuhi Akta Kanak-Kanak dalam pelaporan media mengenai kanak-kanak (Malay/English)

The South-East Asian Press Alliance (Seapa) is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation campaigning for genuine press freedom in the region.

The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.

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najib manaukau
22 Dec 2013 8.31am

The present regime only wants media that writes favorably about the Umno warlords and all their actions and policies. … How can there be any improvement if there are no criticisms and it is for this very reason Umno has remain to be what they have been all these years !

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