The Malaysian Insider, leading to the arrest of three of its senior editorial staff, and this morning’s arrest of TMI‘s CEO and the publisher of The Edge, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi issued a stern warning to online and traditional media outlets alike: check your facts.
Zahid seemed to have made up his mind on the sedition investigation initated against TMI managing editor Lionel Morais, Bahasa Malaysia news editor Amin Shah Iskandar, and features and analysis editor Zulkifli Sulong, as well as the newsportal’s CEO Jahabar Sadiq and the publisher of The Edge, Ho Kay Tat.
“They were detained because they (TMI) committed to false reporting. No decision was made by the Conference of Rulers as reported in the news portal,” he told Astro Awani today.
After TMI, which is owned by The Edge, filed a report last week on the Conference of Malay Rulers objecting to proposed amendments to the Federal Constitution that would allow for the implementation of Islamic hudud, or criminal, law, the Bearer of the Royal Seal refuted the claims in the article, and lodged a police report on the matter.
Several Barisan Nasional (BN) members of Parliament also lodged parliamentary complaints against the newportal and its management on the issue, which led to last night’s raid and arrests.
READ: Arrests of editors criticised by media groups
READ: TMI office raided, editors arrested
READ: Executives from The Malaysian Insider, The Edge arrested
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