Online access to whistleblower site Sarawak Report has been blocked for Malaysian internet users by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, until the invesitagations on sovereign development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad are conculded.
MCMC strategic communications senior director Sheikh Raffie Abdul Rahman told The Malay Mail Online‘s Melissa Chi that the commission sent out directives yestertday to Malaysian Internet service providers (ISPs) to block user access to the UK-based site.
“Yes we have proceeded with limiting the access to the site,” he said.
“We have issued the instructions to all service providers.”
The MCMC later issued a press release stating that it had decided to block websites that could “threaten the country’s stability” with content that “cannot be verified and is being investigated”, after the commission received “information and complaints from the public”,
Sarawak Report was mentioned as one of the sites in question.
The MCMC says its move was in accordance to allowances provided by Section 211 and 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, and added that the block on Sarawak Report was temporary, until such time that the Federal Government’s Special Task Force ends its investigation on 1MDB.
Browsing to sarawakreport.org today resulted in the notice shown in our header image above.
However, Malaysian netizens using a virtual private network (VPN) such as Nord, TorGuard, or Hola, could sidestep the MCMC blockade – the website seems to be running just fine, temporary blackout or no:
Right before last week’s Hari Raya break, a new wave of exposés on the ongoing 1MDB scandal surfaced, chief among them the video confession of Lester Melanyi, who was alleged to have been the “former editor of Sarawak Report“.
In the video, Melanyi claimed that Clare Rewcastle-Brown, SR‘s founder, and he were contacted by Anwar Ibrahim, Rafizi Ramli and Tony Pua of the Federal Opposition to falsify and forge incriminating 1MDB documents with the aim of toppling Prime Minister Najib Razak and his BN government.
Rewcastle-Brown responded by denying Melanyi was ever involved in editorial operations and SR, and said he was in fact a former employee at SR affilitate Radio Free Sarawak. She has also vowed to divulge more dirt on Melanyi in relatiation.
Melanyi later admitted to having received money from interested parties for his video confession and other damning information about SR, but would not say how much he was paid. He also mentioned that he was approached by one Ramesh Rao, who claimed to be a “special officer from the Prime Minister’s Office”, to confess his collusion in the alleged SR plot against Najib.
The PMO denied that anyone by the name Ramesh Rao was on its payroll as a special officer.
Sarawak Report fully became embroiled in the mainstream discussion on 1MDB when it, along with The Wall Street Journal, alleged on July 2 that some USD700 million (RM2.6 billion) of 1MDB funds were transferred into personal AmBank accounts registered under the Prime Minister’s name, prompting a four-way investigative Special Task Force comprising of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the PDRM, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, and Bank Negara.
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