(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 7 March 2005, a reporter for TV3, a privately-owned Malaysian broadcaster, was questioned by police over a story that exposed environmental issues in the northern state of Kedah. The local English-language daily, the “Malay Mail”, reported on 9 March that Fazli Ahmad, 31, was questioned by four police officers from the Kubang […]
(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 7 March 2005, a reporter for TV3, a privately-owned Malaysian broadcaster, was questioned by police over a story that exposed environmental issues in the northern state of Kedah.
The local English-language daily, the “Malay Mail”, reported on 9 March that Fazli Ahmad, 31, was questioned by four police officers from the Kubang Pasu police station for over an hour about his report on land-clearing activities in the state. The report was aired on TV3’s prime time news on 27 February.
According to the “Malay Mail”, the officers, led by Assistant Superintendent Abdul Sani Ahmad, went to see the reporter at his office in Alor Star, the capital of Kedah.
Fazli told the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ), SEAPA’s local partner for press advocacy, that he was asked about his sources, who assigned him to the story and why the story had the focus that it did.
He told CIJ that this was not the first time he had been questioned by local police about his reports.
The head of the Malaysian Special Branch in Kedah could not be reached for comment. Fazli has reportedly lodged a police report.
“We view the police action as deliberate intimidation toward the reporter, who was only doing his job of informing society about an issue of public concern,” CIJ said in a 10 March statement.
“The topic was all the more timely and pertinent as the prime minister himself has expressed shock over environmental degradation elsewhere,” CIJ added.
Mainstream media in Malaysia are heavily regulated by the state. Major newspapers and broadcast networks are directly or indirectly controlled by the state or the ruling party.
