Malaysia’s shaky, deeply unpopular government is seeking to regain control of the narrative in the internet age via dramatic use of police power to harass and investigate activists, journalists, and social media users. Foreign news reports from investigative journalism websites Asia Sentinel and Sarawak Report have been blocked periodically by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission.
Local media rarely issue critical reports out of fear of prosecution. Blogs, like Mariam Mokhtar’s Rebuilding Malaysia are suffering periodic distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, in which targeted websites are flooded with tens of thousands of responses, overloading the websites and crashing them.
COMMENT | In this pandemic, rakyat and PN have been acting irresponsibly
Modified11:35 pm (Politicians) told me to
loosen roadblocks and asked why I tightened them. If they are loosened again, the (Covid-19) clusters would increase.
– Former inspector-general of police Abdul Hamid Bador
COMMENT | Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah’s appeal to Malaysians to “self-lockdown” is a sad attempt to rally an apathetic public enabled by an incompetent political system. And by the political system, I mean Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Pakatan Harapan.
The reality is that much of the damage this pandemic has wrought has been brought upon by the current government, individual state governments but most importantly by a public who has no problem using the incompetence of the political system with their inconsistent rules to flaunt public safety guidelines.
Monday, 24 May 2021 12:20 PM MYT
BY JERRY CHOONG
Media groups said it was worrying to see journalists being summoned by the police for their reporting. Picture by Hari Anggara
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KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 A coalition of media NGOs and organisations has urged the government to stop harassing journalists and the press for merely carrying out their duties.
Consisting of the Centre for Independent Journalism, Gerakan Media Merdeka and the National Union of Journalists, the coalition expressed its alarm at the frequent use of harassment tactics by the authorities towards the media.
LETTER | Stop harassing media for their reporting
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LETTER | The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Gerakan Media Merdeka (Geramm) and National Union of Journalists (NUJM) are alarmed by the frequent use of harassment tactics by the Malaysian authorities toward the media.
On May 18, 2021, two
Malaysiakini journalists were summoned by the police to give their statements over three articles relating to the death of A Ganapathy who died while seeking treatment in the hospital after being arrested by the police in early February this year.
Just prior to that, on May 10, 2021,
It is a worrying pattern to see journalists being summoned by the police for their reporting. This year alone, we saw at least five incidents where journalists are being questioned and investigated. It is alarming that the same media outlet is being targeted and this year alone,