The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) is alarmed by Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah’s announcement yesterday that the ministry will be cracking down on Al Jazeera’s accreditation and license. This is the latest form of retaliation by the State against Al Jazeera over the international media’s “Locked Up In Malaysia’s Lockdown“ 3 July 2020 documentary. The State earlier called them out for their reporting and accusing them of spreading falsehoods.
To date, the Malaysian government has not set up a platform to respond or called for a substantive press conference to provide a legitimate and reasonable counter or explanation over Al Jazeera’s allegedly unfavourable or misleading reporting. Instead, the State and its apparatus have initiated police investigations, questioned Al Jazeera staff and essentially undermined press freedom in Malaysia and threatened the country’s reputation at the international level. This is all the more appalling as it comes just months after Malaysia recorded a jump on the World Press Freedom Index and further adding on to the list of freedom of expression infringements since the change of government this year.
Merely branding the Al Jazeera documentary as misleading or inaccurate does not count, and is, frankly, a counterproductive and irresponsible way of setting the record straight. The onus is on the government to list down all facts stated in the documentary that they disagree with and to counter it with information, reliable and verifiable data and statistics. The State and its apparatus must also stop penalising the views of interviewees in the Al Jazeera documentary – a right that is enshrined in law and international human rights instruments relating to freedom of expression.
We reiterate our call for an internal investigation to be carried out at once into potential mismanagement of power or accountability in the treatment of undocumented migrants during the movement control order (MCO).
We also urge the government to drop all investigations into Al Jazeera and for the Communication and Multimedia Minister to support media independence and freedom of the press – not be complicit in infringements on the right to information and freedom of expression.
We further urge the minister to move ahead with the establishment of the Malaysian Media Council as a transparent and independent self-regulatory body for the industry and to avoid the government and its agencies from becoming the sole arbiter of truth.
20 July 2020
Wathshlah G. Naidu
CIJ Executive Director
For media inquiries, contact Vinodh Pillai at media_comms@cijmalaysia.net
