KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian
authorities have suspended publication of a business daily whose aggressive
reporting on a financial scandal has rocked the government, a move the
newspaper and media groups decried Friday as a grave breach of press freedom.
In a notice dated Thursday, the
Home Ministry suspended the publishing permits of The Edge Media Group for
three months, saying its reporting on the scandal swirling around state-owned
company 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) threatened "public
order".
The Edge has published a series
of exposes over the past year detailing alleged fraud, mismanagement and
misappropriation of funds surrounding 1MDB, which is closely linked to Prime
Minister Najib Razak.
"This is nothing more than a
move to shut us down in order to shut us up," the Edge group's CEO Ho Kay
Tat said in a statement.
- Earlier this week the government blocked the UK-based website Sarawak Report, which also has published extensive reports on the scandal.
- Najib is under mounting pressure amid allegations that hundreds of millions of dollars in 1MDB funds were siphoned off in complex overseas transactions.
- The Wall Street Journal reported this month Malaysian government investigators had discovered that nearly $700 million had moved through government agencies, banks and companies linked to 1MDB before ending up in Najib's personal accounts.
- Najib and 1MDB officials have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
- The premier has dismissed the Wall Street Journal report as "political sabotage", while 1MDB has said it did not transfer any funds to the premier.
- 1MDB also is reeling under 11 billion dollars in debt, blamed largely on a drive to acquire power-industry assets.
- Fears that it may collapse or require a massive bailout have contributed to a recent slide in the ringgit currency to 16-year lows.
- The Home Ministry said The Edge's reports on 1MDB were "prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest."
- But Ho said: "We don't see how exposing the scam to cheat the people of Malaysia of billions of ringgit can be construed as being detrimental to public and national interest."
- Malaysia's Centre for Independent Journalism called the printing suspension "an extremely heavy-handed measure and a breach of freedom of expression and media freedom in particular."
The suspension, effective from
July 27, applies to print outlets The Edge Financial Daily and The Edge Weekly,
Ho said, adding that the company would fight the suspension in court.
The Edge's online platforms will
be unaffected, he said.
Malaysia passed laws in the 1990s
protecting the country's Internet from censorship, part of a pledge aimed at
luring foreign high-tech
investment.
investment.
Source: Agency
Post a Comment