The offices of online newsportal The Malaysian Insider were beset by almost a dozen police officers and officials from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) this evening, as they were probed for possible seditious activities.
The raid resulted in the arrest of TMI managing editor Lionel Morais, Bahasa Malaysia news editor Amin Shah Iskandar, and features and analysis editor Zulkifli Sulong, according to the newsportal’s own report, just published.
All three were arrested in relation to sedition investigations stemming from a police report lodged by a representative of the Conference of Malay Rulers last week.
TMI ran an article on the Conference of Malay Rulers objecting to Islamist party PAS’s proposed amendments to federal legislation to facilitate Islamic hudud criminal law. The Conference’s officials later denied the contents of the report were true.
Several BN lawmakers, incluing Tanjong Karang MP and Selangor UMNO chief Noh Omar, Titiwangsa MP Johari Abdul Ghani, and Lenggong MP Shansul Anuar Nasarah, slammed the newsportal for what they termed as its “irresponsible” reporting.
Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar also took to Twitter after the report was published to question TMI‘s motives in putting out “inaccurate and confusing” news reports, and vowed to call up TMI‘s editorial top brass for questioning.
A TMI columnist, UM lecturer Khoo Ying Hooi, was probed last week under Section 500 of the Penal Code for defamation, following the release of her op-ed titled “Who Owns The Police”, which criticised police conduct surrounding the #KitaLawan protest campaign.
Photo: Najjua Zulkefli / The Malaysian Insider
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