Police question TMI journos over MACC article
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Insider (TMI) chief editor Jahabar Sadiq was among five journalists questioned for four hours by police concerning an article relating to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
The others were managing editor Lionel Morais, assistant news editor V. Anbalagan, assistant chief sub-editor Abdur Rahman Koya and Srihanasham Noordin.
Jahabar said they had given statements to both police and the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and were being investigated under Section 8 (a) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and Section 124 (i) of the Penal Code for dissemination of false reports.
“We have given our statements to both sides. We leave it to them to investigate but we stand by our story. We’ve done our part now we let the authorities investigate if any offence has been committed but we don’t think any offence was committed,” said Jahabar outside Bukit Aman yesterday.
Earlier Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in his Twitter account said the article was said to have caused “confusion” among the public regarding MACC’s Operations Review Panel (ORP).
“PCIRC @PDRMsia panggil Ketua Editor @tm_insider dan siasat lapuran yg mengelirukan org ramai berkenaan Panel MACC (The Police Cyber Investigation Response Centre from the Royal Malaysian Police Department has called on The Malaysian Insider’s chief editor and is investigating the news report that has created confusion among the public with regards to the MACC panel),” he tweeted.
On Thursday, two members of the panel said that they were not behind the report titled “Enough proof to charge Najib over SRC, says MACC oversight committee” which cited anonymous sources.
Chairman Tan Sri Hamid Bugo and panel member Tan Sri Mohamed Jawhar Hassan said the panel also did not conclude that “the MACC investigators had collected sufficient evidence to prove a prima facie case against Najib”.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) later blocked the online news portal for violating the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. TMI now runs at an alternate domain.
Meanwhile, a former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Badaruddin Ismail, 70, made a police report against Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak over the ban on the news portal at Dang Wangi police station on Thursday night.
