CIJ calls for an end to impunity in relation to the crackdown against media in Malaysia

Today is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. This is a day that commemorates journalists who have been killed for reporting the news and bringing information to the public (close to 1,200 from 2006 to 2019, or one death every four days on average). Celebrated annually on 2 November, it also highlights the sexual attacks, intimidations, harassments, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and torture of male and female journalists.

Since the change of government in March, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has seen an alarming trend in the crackdown on the media and journalists in Malaysia. Some examples include the Malaysiakini contempt of court application hearing; the questioning of South China Morning Post News Correspondent Tashny Sukumaran over her coverage of the May Day raids on migrants in Kuala Lumpur; and the police probe of Al Jazeera and its journalists over a documentary on Malaysia’s treatment of undocumented migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

These have been accompanied with online harassment and cyberbullying of journalists simply for reporting the news, such as in the case of the Al Jazeera journalists, as well as journalists Kow Gah Chie (Malaysiakini), Melissa Goh (Channel News Asia), Radzi Razak (Malay Mail) and Zurairi A.R. (Malay Mail). These and other instances where reporters have been threatened and/or denied journalistic access, not only endanger journalists but our right to information.

To quote United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon: “When journalists are targeted, societies as a whole pay a price. If we do not protect journalists, our ability to remain informed and make evidence-based decisions is severely hampered. When journalists cannot do their jobs in safety, we lose an important defence against the pandemic of misinformation and disinformation that has spread online.”

As such, we must ensure that all necessary measures are adopted to ensure that Malaysia does not spiral into a situation where we see the collapse of the independence and structure of the media as a key institution due to unchecked impunity or actions of the State. 

We, therefore, call for the following measures to be adopted by the State and its apparatus to:

• Drop all investigations and stop all acts of intimidation and adverse actions against Al Jazeera, Malaysiakini and journalists.
• Promote media freedom and create an enabling environment for the media to function with independence and with no fear of repercussion for carrying out their reporting functions. This would require the commitment of the government to go beyond rhetorics and actually implement the promises and pledges that have been made by the Minister of Communication and Multimedia iterating that the current regime will promote media freedom and adopt measures to amend laws that restrict media freedom;
• Place a moratorium on the use of repressive laws that the State must review and amend, including Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, the Sedition Act 1948, the Official Secrets Act 1972 and the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) Act 1981, among others, and;
• Move ahead with the establishment of the Malaysian Media Council as a transparent and independent self-regulatory body for the industry, a call CIJ has made on numerous occasions since the change of government this year. Having a media council in place will avoid the State and its agencies from becoming the sole arbiter of truth or arbitrarily censoring or punishing the media for reporting that is critical of the State.

It is incumbent on the government to ensure that journalists can operate “without fear or favour”, including guaranteeing their freedom and safety to report. Instead of contributing to a climate of fear, we should always strive towards an environment which will recognise the critical role of journalists. 

2 November 2020

Wathshlah G. Naidu
CIJ Executive Director

For media inquiries, contact Vinodh Pillai at media_comms@cijmalaysia.net